One of my first international adventures some 30 years ago was to visit the Mayan ruins in Guatemala, Honduras and Belize (I have yet to see those located in Mexico). I was an inexperienced traveler in those days and exploring the ruins of a mysterious civilization was great fun! The photos in this blog are digital images of Kodachrome slides I took on that trip.
We visited several impressive Mayan sites, notably Tikal in Guatemala, and Copan in Honduras. Tikal has huge temples that tower over the rainforest, but the artwork and artistic details seen Copan are very impressive and the most advanced of the Mayan culture.
A Brief History of Copan:
The period of large Mayan cities was about 300-900 AD, shortly after which the cities were largely abandoned. No one is exactly sure why Mayan civilization came to an end, but it may have to do with depletion of natural resources around the cities, or infectious diseases.
Copan, once a city of some 20,000 inhabitants, was abandoned. The jungle gradually took over and covered the ruins. Copan remained lost until it was rediscovered in 1570 by Diego García de Palacio. Its ruins were not excavated until the 19th century. Copan was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980.
Our visit to Copan started at its small museum. Here you can view a reconstructed scale model of the site, which is helpful at gaining an understanding of the layout of the city (much harder to grasp when you are wandering around the ruins). The museum also has some interesting art and artefacts.
(view of the Great Plaza)
There’s a lot to be said for exploring the site on foot, despite its heat and humidity. It was from one of the upper terraces that last weekend’s One Clue Mystery photo was taken (see below). Congratulations to Professor Abe and George G, who recognized where we were.
(One Clue Mystery Photo, showing the view from the West Court, including the ball court)
The photo below features a ground level view of the ball court. The ball court is well known and is where the game “tlachtli” was played. I don’t know much about the game except that as with most sports it involved two sides competing against each other, the goal being to try to put the ball through a hoop on the other side. Being Mayan, it was probably a very rough and bloody game.
(Closer view of the ball court)
Copan’s current site comprises some 250 acres (100 hectares), including residential areas. Its central district covers 54 acres (22 hectares) and consists of stone temples, several pyramids, stairways and plazas. Studies have shown that the Mayans had made advances in mathematics, astronomy and hieroglyphs.
Hieroglyphic Stairway is quite outstanding. On the risers of this 100 m wide 63 step stairway are about 2500 individual glyphs which are the longest known Mayan inscription.
(Portion of the Hieroglyphic staircase)
(some of the ruins)
Sculpture in Copán was the most sophisticated of all the Mayan cities, as seen in the stelae and altars. There are at least 60 carved stelae on the site, several of which are shown below:
And a few other carvings….
(Column with some of hieroglyphs)
There are many other structures in Copan, far too many to discuss in this blog, but I hope you I gave you a feel for the site.
I wish I’d kept better notes of my visit, but surprising I still remember a lot of details of that visit. I think I’ll need to bead back sometime when travel finally becomes ‘normal’ again.
