Copan

Also called “VALLEY OF KINGS”. The Copan Ruins are located in the western part of Republic of Honduras, Central America. It is the archeological city located south of the whole geographic area, and it is where the great Mayan Civilization developed and flourished. It was a fabulous dynasty which governed for centuries.
(The area is 325,000 square kilometers and comprises the southeastern part of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and part of El Salvador).

Most of the Mayan archeological sites today bear the name given to them by their discoverers. The case of Copan is different. It can not be asserted that this was the name under which the city originated, developed and flourished. According to Don Diego García de Palacios’s letter, which is considered as the first written account of these remarkable ruins, can assure us that these ruins were known by this name during the sixteenth century.

nvestigators have not yet agreed upon the etymology of the word “Copan”. Several translations have been offered regarding its meaning such as “bridge”, “Capital of Co”, and others say it comes from the Nahuatl language, and they add the ending “tl”, thus converting it into “Copantl”, which means “ pontoon or bridge”.
Historians’ believed that great cities such as Copan were ceremonial centers where only kings lived, while the rest of the population lived in nearby cities and were allowed to visit the great cities only when important ceremonies took place.

Today we know that the writing in the glyphs of Copan talk about important historic issues. Explaining mainly about its kings and their important battles, lives and deeds.
It is best to get a guide while at the Ruins, this way you will learn the story and the culture of a long lost culture, the Mayan culture.

A place you must visit in Copan is the new museum “El Museo de las Esculturas” is another way of knowing more of this arqueological site. You start entering the museum as if you were entering into the mouth of a snake, you continue walking through a long & dark tunnel, representing the excavated tunnels in the inside of the Acropolis, it is also symbolizes Xilbaba, the Mayan underworld. At the end of the museum you may see a replica of the famous Rosalila temple.