Copán

The longest Maya inscription in the world, on a staircase

Copán lies in a fertile valley of the Copán River in western Honduras, close to the border with Guatemala, 1.6 kilometres from the modern village of Copán Ruinas. People lived in the valley from about 1500 BC, and the city was occupied for more than two thousand years. From the 5th to the 9th centuries AD it was the capital of a major Classic Maya kingdom on the southeastern edge of the Maya world, controlling the upper Motagua valley, a main source of jade and obsidian. Diego García de Palacio described the ruins in 1570, Stephens and Catherwood published drawings of them in 1841, and UNESCO listed the site in 1980.

In AD 426 or 427 a warrior from the Tikal region, K'uk' Mo' Ajaw, took the throne as K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo' and founded a dynasty of sixteen kings that ruled for four centuries. Around AD 776 the last of them, Yax Pasaj Chan Yopaat, set Altar Q at the base of Temple 16, over the founder's tomb. It shows all sixteen rulers in order, with a text on top describing the founding. Tunnelling into Temple 16 found older phases inside it, among them Rosalila, discovered entombed intact, and the Margarita platform, which held the richly furnished burial of an elderly woman called the Lady in Red, probably the founder's widow. Looters who seemed to know the tunnel system broke into that tomb in February 1998 and took at least five carved jades, though most of its contents had already gone to a conservation laboratory.

The Hieroglyphic Stairway climbs the west side of Structure 10L-26, 10 metres wide with 62 steps. Its 2,200 glyphs form the longest known Maya hieroglyphic text, still being reassembled after the façade collapsed and scrambled the blocks. Uaxaclajuun Ub'aah K'awiil built the first version in AD 710; K'ak' Yipyaj Chan K'awiil moved it into his own temple, doubled the text and seated five life-size statues of rulers on its steps.

Uaxaclajuun Ub'aah K'awiil, one of the city's greatest kings, was also its worst disaster. In AD 738 his former vassal, K'ak' Tiliw Chan Yopaat of Quiriguá, captured and beheaded him, and Copán went through a 17-year hiatus, perhaps subject to Quiriguá. The city recovered and built again, but it was abandoned in the early 10th century. The Copán River ate away much of the eastern side of the acropolis before it was diverted to protect the site.