ITZA, an American-Indian people of Mayan stock, inhabiting the country around Lake Peten in northern Guatemala. Chichen Itza, among the most wonderful of the ruined cities of Yucatan, was the capital of the Itzas. Thence, according to tradition they removed, on the breaking up of the Mayan kingdom in 2420, to an island in the lake and built another city. In 1697, the Spaniards destroyed the city and temples, and a library of sacred books, written in hieroglyphics on bark fibre.