Copán

Copán, ruined ancient Maya city, in extreme western Honduras near the Guatemalan border. It lies on the west bank of the Copán River, about 35 miles (56 km) west of the modern town of Santa Rosa de Copán. The site was added to the World Heritage List in 1980.

Copán began as a small agricultural settlement about 1000 bce. It became an important Maya city during the Classic Period (c. 250–900 ce), and at its peak early in the 9th century it may have been home to as many as 20,000 people. A dynasty of at least 16 kings ruled Copán from about 426 to 822, by which latter date the city had entered a serious decline. The Maya had completely abandoned the site by about 1200.

The site comprises some 250 acres (100 hectares), including residential areas. Its central district covers 54 acres (22 hectares) and consists of stone temples, two large pyramids, several stairways and plazas, and a court for playing the ball game tlachtli (Mayan: pok-ta-pok). Most of these structures centre on a raised platform (now called the Acropolis) that was apparently the architectural centre of the ancient city. Copán is particularly noted for the friezes on some of its other buildings and the portrait sculptures on its many stelae. The Hieroglyphic Stairway, which leads to one of the temples, is beautifully carved with some 1,260 hieroglyphic symbols on the risers of its 63 remaining steps. There is evidence that astronomers in Copán calculated the most accurate solar calendar produced by the Maya up to that time.

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The first Europeans to discover the site’s ruins were Spanish explorers in the late 16th century. The American travelers John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood rediscovered them in 1839, and in the 1930s and ’40s the ruins were restored by a group jointly sponsored by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, D.C., and the government of Honduras. Another major investigation that began in 1975 revealed much of Copán’s political and dynastic history through the decipherment of hieroglyphic inscriptions on its monuments.