Our Route Through HondurasWith a cool, mountainous interior and a long, warm Caribbean coastline, Honduras is the second largest of the Central American countries. Travel is easy, enjoyable and inexpensive. Among the better-known Honduran attractions are the spectacular Mayan ruins at Copan near the Guatemalan border, with its pyramids, temples and intricately carved stelae (standing stone monuments). La Tigra National Park, just a few kilometers from Tegucigalpa , the capital, is a lush, cool cloud forest. Several other cloud forests are also protected in national arks - La Muralla, Celaque, Cusuco, and Pico Bonito are the most accessible for visitors.
Designated by UNESCO as a world heritage site,
Copan Ruins is about 1 kilometer outside town a pleasant 15 minute stroll along a footpath to one side of the highway. Admission includes entry to Las Sepulturas archaeological site, a couple of kilometers further along.
Ceramic evidence shows that people have been living in the Copan valley since at least around 1200 BC and probably before that. Copan must have had significant commercial activity since early times; graves showing significant Olmec influence have been dated to around 900 to 600 BC. Around AD 426, one royal family came to rule Copan, led by a mysterious king named Mah K'ina Yax K'uk' Mo' (Great Sun Lord and Quetzal Macaw), who ruled from AD 426 to 435. Archeaological evidence indicates that he was a great shaman; later kings revered him as the semi-divine founder of the city. The dynasty ruled throughout Copan's florescence during the Classic period (AD 250-900). Of the early kings who ruled from about 435 to 628 we know little. Only the names of some of the rulers have been deciphered; Mat Head, the second king; Cu Ix, the fourth king; Waterlily Jaguar, the seventh king; Moon Jaguar, the 10th; and Butz' Chan, the 11th. Among the greatest of Copan's kings was Smoke Imix (Somke Jaguar), the 12th king, who ruled from 628 to 695. Somke Imix was wise, forceful and rich, and he built Copan into a major military and commercial power in the region. He might have even taken over the nearby princedom of Quirigua, as one of the famous stelae bears his name and image. By the time he died in 695, Copan's population had grown significantly. At its peak, Copan is thought to have supported about 20,000 people. Smoke Imix was succeeded by Uaxaclahun Ubak K'awil (18 Rabbit; 695-738), the 13th king, who willingly took the reins of power and pursued further military conquest. In a war with his neighbor, King Cauac Sky, 18 Rabbit was captured and beheaded, to be succeeded by Smoke Monkey (738-749), the 14th king. Smoke Monkey's short reign left little mark on Copan. In 749, Smoke Monkey was succeeded by his son Smoke Shell (749-763), one of Copan's greatest builders. He commissioned the construction of the city's most famous and important monument, the great Hieroglyphic Stairway, which immortalizes the achievements of the dynasty from its establishment until 755, when the stairway was dedicated. It is the longest such inscription ever discovered in the Mayan lands. Yax Pac (Sunrise or First Dawn, 763-820), Smoke Shell's successor and the 16th king of Copan, continued the beautification of Copan, though it seems that the dynasty's power was declining and its subjects had fallen on hard times. The final aspirant to the throne, U Cit Tok', became ruler in 822, but it is not known when he died. Until recently, the collapse of the civilization at Copan has been a mystery. Now, archaeologists are starting to understand what happened. Apparently, near the end of Copan's heyday, the population grew at an unprecedented rate, straining agricultural resources; in the end, Copan was no longer agriculturally self-sufficient and had to import food from other areas. The urban core expanded into the fertile lowlands in the center of the valley, forcing both agriculture and residential areas to spread into the steep slopes surrounding the valley. Wide areas were deforested, resulting in massive erosion that further decimated agricultural rainy seasons. Skeletal remains of people who died during the final years of Copan's heyday show marked evidence of malnutrition and infectious disease, as well as decreased lifespan. The Copan Valley was not abandoned overnight - agriculturalists probably continued to live in the ecologically devastated valley for maybe 100 or 200 more years - but by the year 1200 or thereabouts even the farmers had departed, and the royal city of Copan was reclaimed by the jungle.
The first known Europeans to see the ruins was Diego Garcia de Palacios, a representative of Spanish King Felipe II, who lived in Guatemala and traveled through the region. On March 8, 1576, he wrote to the king about the ruins he found here. Only about five families were living here then, and they knew nothing of the history of the ruins. The discovery was not pursued, and almost three centuries went by until another Spaniard, Colonel Juan Galindo, visited the ruins and made the first maps of them. Galindo's report stimulated Americans John L. Stephens and Frederick Catherwood to come to Copan on their Central American journey in 1839. When Stephens published the book Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan in 1841, illustrated by Catherwood, the ruins first became known to the world at large.
The history of the ruins continues to unfold today, as archaeologists continue to probe the site. The remains of 3,450 structures have been found in the 24 square-kilometers surrounding the Principal Group. In a wider zone, 4,509 structures have been detected in 1,420 sites within 135 square-kilometers of the ruins. These discoveries indicated that at the peak of Mayan civilization here, around the end of the 8th century, the valley of Copan had over 20,000 inhabitants - a population not reached again until the 1980s. In addition to examining the areas around the Principal Group, archaeologists are continuing to explore and make new discoveries at the Principal Group itself. Five separate phases of building on this site have been identified; the final phase, dating from AD 650 to 820, is what we see today. But buried underneath the visible ruins are layers of other ruins, which archaeologists are exploring by means of underground tunnels. This is how the Rosalila temple was found, a replica of which is now in the Museum of Sculpture; below Rosalila is yet another, earlier temple, Margarita.
Something must have gone wrong for you to be stuck in La Entrada...
| Joined | May 2nd 2006 | Trips | 0 |
| Last Login | September 16th 2009 | Followers | 0 |
| Status | BLOGGER | Follows | 0 |
| Blogs | 34 | Guestbook | 25 |
| Photos | 249 | Forum Posts | 0 |
| [blog=58982] | [blogger=16305] |
| [blog=58982] | [blogger=16305] |
