MessageToEagle.com – An archaeological site of Copán contains the remains of ancient ruins associated with the Maya civilization and is located in the Copán Department of western Honduras, not far from the border with Guatemala.
Copán was the capital city of a major Classic period kingdom from the 5th to 9th centuries AD and it flourished in the 8th century AD, having about 20,000 inhabitants.
It was a powerful city ruling a vast kingdom within the southern Maya area.
Among Copán’s ancient ruins there is an artificial and over 30 meter high platform that forms a main 12 acre acropolis with lesser platforms spreading out to form an impressive area covered with monumental, overlapping step-pyramids, plazas, palaces and courts. Residential area for the city’s elite and smaller dwellings for ordinary people surrounded the sacred center of the city of Copán that once covered some 250 acres.
The Maya of the Copan Valley are said to have occupied the region starting in the Preclassic Period (1300- 900 BC) and they lived there until the time of the Spanish Conquest.
The traditional founder of Copán was K’inich Yax K’uk Mo’ (‘Great Sun Quetzal-Macaw’), probably from Tikal, who reigned from 426 AD to c. 437 and was the first of a line of 16 rulers of the city.
He developed Copán and made it to a major, wealthy center, of which prosperity was based on rewarding trade in jade, obsidian and regional conquests. The city was under influence from Teotihuacan.
Among the greatest rulers of Copán was certainly Smoke Imix (Smoke Jaguar), the 12th king who ruled from 628 to 695. Smoke Jaguar was rich, wise and powerful ruler, who built Copán into a military and commercial power in the region.
He is believed to have been born in AD 612 and to have become king at the age of 15. Especially from 652 AD, he began to build monuments that celebrated a k’atun-ending, a unit of time in the Maya calendar equal to 20 tuns or 7,200 days, equivalent to 19.713 tropical years.
See also:
Mysterious ‘White City’ Hidden In Honduras’ Jungle: Archaeological Excavations Have Begun
Mythical ‘White City’ Hidden In Deep Jungle Of Honduras Begins To Reveal Its Secrets
Teotihuacán: Enigmatic “Birthplace Of The Gods” And Place Of Horrific Sacrifices
Smoke Imix ruled Copán for 67 years and died on 15 June 695 at the age of 79.
The city suffered a major political disaster in 738 AD when Uaxaclajuun Ub’aah K’awiil, one of the greatest kings in Copán’s dynastic history, was captured and executed by his former vassal, the king of Quiriguá and a local rival over the several centuries.
According to ancient records, the last ruler was Yax Pasaj Chan Yopaat, whose mother was from Palenque and whose reign ended in 820 AD. It was a difficult period in history of Copán, when the city was struggling with overpopulation and a lack of local resources, indispensable for its existence. Most of basic necessities were imported and Copán entered a period of decline and finally collapsed.
However, there were no great signs of destruction of the Mayan center.
The Copán site is known for a series of portrait stelae, placed along ceremonial ways in the central plaza of the city, the connecting acropolis and a large court for playing the Mesoamerican ballgame. There are stone houses, burial mounds, altars and drainage ditches and other structures.
One of the structures is the Hieroglyphic Stairway, a series of 63 steps, with 2500 hieroglyphics that constitute the ancient historical records being the longest surviving Maya texts.
Don Diego Garcia de Palacio rediscovered Copan. He wrote to the King of Spain about his findings on March 8, 1576.
In 1834, the first scientific expedition to Copan was organized by Colonel Juan Galindo. Only five years later, the site of Copán was purchased by an American explorer John Lloyd Stevens.
Until a century ago, Copan was buried in a deep tropical jungle. Many of structures suffered from forces of nature.
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