Copán , old ruin Maya Far West City Honduras near the Guatemalan border. It is located on the west bank of the Copán River, about 56 km west of the modern city Santa Rosa de Copán . The page has been added to World Heritage List 1980.
Copán began as a small agricultural settlement around 1000 v . It became an important Maya - City during the Classic Period ( c. 250-900 ce ) and at its peak in the early 9th century it can become Have been home to as many as 20,000 people. A Dynasty of at least 16 kings, Copán ruled from about 426 to 822, at which point the city fell into serious decline was. The Maya had completely abandoned the site by 1200.
The terrain includes around 100 hectares, including residential areas. Its central precinct covers 22 hectares and consists of stone temples, two large pyramids, several stairways and plazas, and a place for playing the ball game tlachtli (Maya: pok-ta-pok ). Most of these structures are located on a raised platform (now called the Acropolis) that appears to have been the architectural center of the ancient city. Copán is particularly noted for the friezes on some of its other buildings and the portrait sculptures on its many steles. The The hieroglyphic staircase leading to one of the temples is beautiful with approximately 1,260 hieroglyphic symbols on the risers of the Decorated 63 remaining levels. There is evidence that astronomers at Copán have the most accurate Solar calendar calculated the that Maya have created up to this point.
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 working together sponsored by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC and the Government of Honduras. Another important investigation, beginning in 1975, revealed much of Copán's political and dynastic history through the decoding of hieroglyphic inscriptions on his monuments.
