COBAN, or SANTO DOMINGO DE COBAN  , the capital of the department of Alta Vera Paz in central Guatemala; about 90 M . N. of the city of Guatemala, on the Cojab6n, a left-hand tributary of the Polochic . Pop . (1905) about 31,000 . The town is built in a mountainous and fertile district, and consists chiefly of adobe Indian cottages, surrounded by gardens of flowering shrubs . More modern houses have been erected for the foreign residents, among whom the Germans are numerically pre-dominant . In the chief square of the town stands a 16th-century Dominican church, externally plain, but covered internally with curious Indian decorations . The municipal offices, formerly a college for priests, are remarkable for their handsome burs disproportionately large gateway in Renaissance style . Despite the want of a railway, Cohan has a flourishing trade in coffee and cinchona; cocoa, vanilla and sugar-cane are also cultivated, and there are manufactures of rum, cotton fabrics, soap and cigars . The prosperity of the town is largely due to the industry of the Quecchi, Kacchi or Kakchi Indians who form the majority of the inhabitants . Cohan was founded in the 16th century by Dominican monks under Fray Pedro de Angulo, whose portrait is preserved in the church . In honour of the emperor Charles V .

(1500-1558), Cohan received the name of

Ciudad Imperial (which soon became-obsolete), together with a coat of arms and other privileges belonging to a Spanish city of the first class .