Izabal Department
Departmento de Izabal | |
|---|---|
 Counterclockwise from top: San Felipe Castle, cruise ship in the port city of Puerto Barrios, Livingston, Rio Dulce, Quirigua UNESCO World Heritage Site & 830 meter long bridge of Rio Dulce | |
.png) Flag  Coat of arms | |
![Izabal and its neighbors[a]](/en/File:Izabal_and_its_neighbors.svg) Izabal and its neighbors[a] | |
| Coordinates: 15°44′0″N 88°36′0″W / 15.73333°N 88.60000°W | |
| Country |  Guatemala |
| Capital | Puerto Barrios |
| Municipalities | 5 |
| Government | |
| • Type | Departmental |
| Area | |
| • Department of Guatemala | 9,038 km2 (3,490 sq mi) |
| • Water | 590 km2 (230 sq mi) |
| Population (2018)[1] | |
| • Department of Guatemala | 408,688 |
| • Density | 45/km2 (120/sq mi) |
| • Urban | 167,653 |
| • Ethnicities | Ladino Q'eqchi' Garífuna Afro-Caribbean |
| • Religions | Roman Catholicism Evangelicalism Maya |
| Time zone | UTC-6 |
| ISO 3166 code | GT-IZ |
Izabal (Spanish pronunciation: [isaˈβal]) is one of the 22 departments of Guatemala. Its coastal areas form part of the homeland of the Garifuna people.
Izabal is bordered to the north by Belize, to the northeast by the Gulf of Honduras, to the east by Honduras, and by the Guatemalan departments of Petén to the northwest, Alta Verapaz to the west, and Zacapa to the south.
The Izabal Department surrounds Lake Izabal (or Lago de Izabal), which is Guatemala's largest lake (about 48 km long and 24 km wide, with an area of about 590 km2). The Spanish Colonial fort of San Felipe, now a Guatemalan national monument, overlooks the point where the lake flows into the Río Dulce.
The small town of Izabal is on the south shore of the lake; before the construction of the ports of Livingston and Puerto Barrios in the 19th century this was Guatemala's main Caribbean Sea port and was the original seat of Izabal department; nowadays, however, Izabal town is a remote village that gets little traffic.
From the area around Lake Izabal, the Department of Izabal stretches along the Río Dulce to the coast of the Caribbean Sea.
The department of Izabal includes the ports of Puerto Barrios (the departmental seat), Santo Tomás de Castilla, Livingston and Guatemala's free trade zone Zolic. Izabal also includes the Pre-Columbian Maya ruins of Quirigua.
