From the square’s center rises the towering National Monument, Monas, whose Flame of Independence shines its reassuring and unifying light across the entire archipelago.
It's the anchor of a site where temple-pyramids are arranged on earthen terraces high above a central plaza where Mayas played pelota, a kind of handball.
Eleven of the 13 presidential candidates had urged their supporters to march to the central square to protest against what they call an institutional coup in favour of the incumbent Andry Rajoelina.
Last year Meskel Square, the historic central plaza, was lavishly refurbished at a cost of more than $73m-a striking sum in a country in the midst of a civil war.
In Istanbul, they waved Turkish flags and thronged the central Taksim square, while in the capital Ankara, a smaller crowd gathered outside the gates of the presidential palace complex.