Tayasal

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Tayasal was a site of the Postclassic Era Maya civilization, located in the southern Maya lowlands region on a small island in Lake Petén Itzá, now part of the northern Guatemalan Department of Petén. It was the capital of the last independent Maya polity to be subdued by the Spanish conquistadores and colonizers, in 1697. As an archaeological site it has been almost completely compromised by the destruction and rebuilding undertaken on the island by the Spanish after its fall, and the capital city of the modern Petén department, Flores, has been built over the island and the nearby shores of the lake.

The Itza left the Yucatán region in the 13th century and built the city later known as Tayasal as their capital. They called it Noh Petén, or literally "City Island". It was also called Tah Itzá, or Place of the Itzá.

It was here on the island of Flores on the shore of Lake Petén Itzá that the last independent state of the Maya civilization held out against the onslaught of the Spanish conquerors. In 1541 Hernán Cortés came to the island, on route to Honduras, but needed to move on and did not try to conquer it.

The Spanish did not manage to conquer the island until 1697 when they marched in, attacked via boats and destroyed it. Those who could do so fled and many Itzá people hid in the jungle for years. From the ruins of Noh Petén arose the modern city of Flores.