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Flores is the capital city of El Petén Department of Guatemala . It is located at . The population is 13,700 ( 2003 ). Flores serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding municipality, with which it shares a name (population 22,594). The old part of the city is located on an Island on Lake Peten Itza , connected to the mainland by a short causeway. On the mainland are the suburb towns of Santa Elena and San Benito . In Pre-Columbian times, Flores was the Maya city of ''Tayasal''. Tayasal 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. ''See also:'' Spanish Conquest Of Yucatán External links
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