Cobán

Coban is the capital of Alta Verapaz department in the central highlands of Guatemala, settled as a Spanish town in the sixteenth century, though the surrounding Verapaz region was brought under Spanish rule through peaceful missionary work by Dominican friars under Bartolome de las Casas rather than by military conquest. The city sits in a cool, cloud-forest region historically associated with coffee and cardamom cultivation, much of it introduced by German immigrant planters in the nineteenth century. Coban hosts the annual Rabin Ajau pageant celebrating Qeqchi Maya culture, reflecting the city's position within a majority indigenous Qeqchi area.