About 120 kilometers from the capital of our country and located in the Department of Santa Ana, in the border between Guatemala and El Salvador, the Guija Lake contains the following archaeological sites: Azacualpa, island Teotipa and Igualtepec peninsula. During the drought in the surroundings of the Lake are ponds surrounded by small areas of land are occupied by local fishermen and which facilitates the work, since the fish are concentrated in a small place.
The Guija Lake has several species of fish such as: Tilapia, Guapote Tigre, catfish, black Crappie, silver, Quishque, Filin, among others. This allows you to develop it fishing as livelihood.
This beautiful place is located at an altitude of 430 meters above sea level, has the ruins of Azacualpa as an additional attraction. Lake Güija, together with the area of Chalchuapa, formed part of the Mayan Empire during the classic period, where remains of buildings of houses and pyramids have been located. It is said that it hides an ancient town under water. Also believed that on the Hill Igualtepec, located to the South of the Lake, could develop the study of the stars, since at the top of the Hill are the remains of a pyramid with more than 100 inscriptions on the stones that resemble human figures of gods, animals, whatever that it is assumed, are astronomical interpretations.
What attracts this place are their petroglyphs, which are found all along the Lake. They are depictions in stone a little abstract animal, human and mythological beings, who they believe are Mayan deities. The small islands in the Lake, have produced a series of interesting archaeological findings.
Small boats offer excursions to the Islands and around the Lake. One of the findings was produced in 1924 was found “the stone of the Sun and the Moon”, which was the merger of the goddess luna and God Sun, the rulers of the Earth and the men as guardians of her creators. In place are many representations of the God of rain (Tláloc), Quetzalcoatl and at least one of the God of spring or Xipectotec, main deities of the Pipil and whose forms are tambiŽn, with equal profusion in ceramics.
According to theories, the causes of the formation of the Guija Lake were the eruption of the volcano of San Diego and the small volcano in El Tule, since it is believed that you obstructed the currents of the river Angue and Ostua, causing flooding and the destruction of the indigenous city Gujat, that currently the Lake is known as Guija. In the canton of Belén in Metapán, have been found remains of houses from an indigenous population.
