Honduras / Guatemala border, Guatemala
Copan, located in the western part of Honduras, about 15 km from the border with Guatemala, is the most studied Maya city in the world and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980. Known as Xukpi to the Maya, it was the dominant Mayan city in the south of their territory and flourished from the 5th century A.D. to the early 9th century A.D.
The site contains impressive structures, stelae and carvings which are mainly found around the principal group, made up of the Acropolis, the Tunnels, the Ball Court, the Hieroglyphic stairway and the Great Plaza. As well as the main Maya site, located about 1 mile away is the smaller site of Las Sepulturas, evidence here suggests that a non-Maya population was living here in what was believed to be a residential area.
Background
During the city’s 400 year existence, seventeen rulers governed this Classic period site including Eighteen Rabbit, whose portrait appears on most of the stela in the Great Plaza. Of its impressive buildings, the Ball Court is one of the largest and most elaborate of the Classic period, it is dedicated to the macaw deity and features sculptured macaw heads. The famous Hieroglyphic Stairway has 2,200 glyph blocks forming the 72 steps of an open stairway on the western side of Temple 26 and the Acropolis has superb carved reliefs of the 16 kings of Copan.
Artefacts found at the Copan Ruinas archaeological site can be seen at the Copan Museum in Copan Ruinas and the Museum of Mayan Sculpture houses original pieces of sculpture and stelae recovered from the site including a full-sized replica of the Rosa Lila temple. Part of the original Rosa Lila Temple, buried by the Maya beneath Temple 16, can be viewed via a special tunnel.