Qʼumarkaj (Kʼicheʼ: [qʼumarˈkaχ]) (sometimes rendered as Gumarkaaj, Gumarcaj, Cumarcaj or Kumarcaaj) is an archaeological site in the southwest of the El Quiché department of Guatemala.

[5] Qʼumarkaj was founded during the reign of king Qʼuqʼumatz ("Feathered Serpent" in Kʼicheʼ) in the early 15th century, immediately to the north of Pismachiʼ.

The surviving architecture, which includes a Mesoamerican ballcourt, temples and palaces, has been badly damaged by the looting of stone to build the nearby town of Santa Cruz del Quiché.

The area of Greater Qʼumarkaj was divided into four major political division, one for each of the most important ruling lineages, and also encompassed a number of smaller satellites sites, including Chisalin, Pismachiʼ, Atalaya and Pakaman.

[16] The nobility were the patrilineal descendants of the founding warlords who appear to have entered as conquerors from the Gulf coast around AD 1200 and who eventually lost their original language and adopted that of their subjects.

[7] Their vassals served as foot-soldiers and were subject to the laws laid out by the nobility, although they could receive military titles as a result of their battlefield prowess.

[24] Kʼotuja Qʼuqʼumatz married Xlem, daughter of the king of the Tzʼutujils of Malaj, a precolumbian settlement near modern-day San Lucas Tolimán, on the shores of Lake Atitlán.

[26] With the death of his father in battle against the Kʼoja, his son and heir Kʼiqʼab swore vengeance, and two years later he led the Kʼicheʼ-Kaqchikel alliance against his enemies, together with the Ajpop Kʼamha (king-elect).

[30] Kʼiqʼab recovered the bones of his father and returned to Qʼumarkaj with many prisoners and all the jade and metal that the Kʼoja possessed, after conquering various settlements in the Sacapulas area, and the Mam people near Zaculeu.

[33] In 1470 a rebellion shook Qʼumarkaj during a great celebration that saw a large gathering that included representatives of all the most important highland peoples.

[31] Two sons of Kʼiqʼab together with some of his vassals rebelled against their king, killing many high ranking lords, Kaqchikel warriors and members of the Kaweq lineage.

[33] The newly empowered Kʼicheʼ lords turned against their Kaqchikel allies, who were forced to flee Qʼumarkaj and found their own capital at Iximche.

[33] After the death of king Kʼiqʼab in 1475 the Kʼicheʼ were engaged in warfare against both the Tzʼutujils and the Kaqchikels, perhaps in an attempt to recover the former power of Qʼumarkaj.

[35] A short time after the death of Kʼiqʼab, under the leadership of Tepepul, Qʼumarkaj attacked Iximche, the capital of the Kaqchikels, and suffered a disastrous defeat that greatly weakened the Kʼicheʼ.

[41] The Kʼicheʼ warriors, seeing their lords taken prisoner, attacked the Spaniards' indigenous allies and managed to kill one of the Spanish soldiers.

[41] At this point Alvarado decided to have the captured Kʼicheʼ lords burnt to death, he then proceeded to burn the entire city.

Francisco Ximénez, who first revealed the Kʼicheʼ epic Popul Vuh to the world, visited Qʼumarkaj in the final years of the 17th century.

[45] In 2003, the Proyecto Etnoarqueológico Qʼumʼarkaj ("Qʼumarkaj Ethnoarchaeological Project") has worked to reconstruct the history and socio-political organisation of the city through archaeological studies combined with ethnohistorical investigations.

[46] The archaeological site is still used for traditional Maya ceremonies, and is one of the most popular destinations in Guatemala for this kind of ritual activity, especially at the solstices and for the New Year.

Various temple pyramids, the remains of palaces (mostly reduced to mounds of rubble) and a court for playing the Mesoamerican ballgame can be seen in the site core.

[2] The standing remains are reduced to the rubble and mud core of the temple, with an opening where modern Maya still make offerings.

[61] The Temple of Tohil was used for human sacrifice, the bodies of the sacrificial victims were probably hurled down the front stairway before being decapitated and the heads places on a skull rack.

[65] A large mound on the south side of the plaza was once the Temple of Jakawitz, a deity of the mountains and the patron of the Ajaw Kʼicheʼ lineage.

[70] The whole structure probably once supported a roof and there were small stone platforms on the east and west sides of the temple, each about 1 metre (3.3 ft) wide.

[80] Some of the larger palaces had several stairways giving access to the antechamber, and multiple doors and pillars opening into the rooms of main building.

[84] Although, typically for the site, the outer stonework has been robbed, there are the remains of six layers of plaster on the floor of the platform's upper surface.

[86] The ruins are located on a narrow strip of land with an area of 110,000 square metres (1,200,000 sq ft) surrounded by steep ravines.

[88] Pismachiʼ (sometimes referred to as Ismachiʼ) occupies a small plateau 600 metres (660 yd) south of the site core and is surrounded by steep ravines.

[88] The site was built upon four terraces that dominated the approach to Qʼumarkaj, at the beginning of the eastern plain occupied by the modern town of Santa Cruz del Quiché.

[88] Atalaya is used for modern Kʼicheʼ rituals and is the focus of local folklore, which relates that Tecún Umán is buried there and that it is haunted by tzitzimit spirits.