A couple weekends ago we went to Copan, the largest site of Mayan ruins in Honduras. There are larger sites in other parts of Central America, but this one is known for having lots of sculptures and heiroglyphics, such as this little one.
The ruins are stretched out over a decent area, that has a bunch of grass and trees in between so that its a nice place to wander around. One of the sites is a ball field (here you can see 1/2 of it). There are slanted walls that apparently were used to bounce a ball off of, and the players hung out in between doing something. Not quite sure what they did with that, and the people that study this stuff aren't either.
These sculptures are one example of the pretty sweet stuff at this site. They are sculpted on all sides and show images of past rulers.... there seem to be one main stela for each of the past rulers. Most are either under some type of shelter, or have pretty impressive replicas out on the site, with the real statue under cover in a nearby museum.
This is apparently one of the longest (the longest?) stairway of heiroglyphics in the mayan world. It initially told the story of the previous rulers, but collapsed at some point, and has not been able to be successfully reassembled. It is fairly impressive.
Here's me, with part of the ballcourt in the back, and further back a plaza with a bunch of the stelae.
This area was called a cemetary, but we couldn't find out too much info on it. Most of the stuff was falling down a fair bit, but the area was rather peaceful and nice to walk around.
There is a museum right at the site of the ruins that is fantastic. Both the design of the museum and its contents were rather amazing. You enter the museum through a long dark tunnel, and come out facing the temple (big red thing) in the photo. Above that temple it is all open air, and there is just an overhang around the opening that protects the sculptures below. The museum is two levels, as shown, and a very simple but with very simple but nice details. Many of the more notable sculpture are kept here so that they are out of the rain.
Finally, one of the streets in the town of Copan. It was a really nice little town... not too much trash, low on the random dogs that like to chase and bark. Definitely a step up from Ojojona. Add in a few nice restaurants, and it was a great little getaway. It is indeed one of the very nice sites of Honduras to see.
1 comment:
what a great blog kelly!
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