Ball Court Sculpture, Copan Maya Archaeology Site, Honduras The majority of Archeologists agree that Copan formed part of the three largest and most lavish cultural centers of the new world. The Mayas developed a civilization based on a complex sociopolitical structure; at the same time they incurred, with amazing dexterity, in the fields of science, mathematics and astronomy. They also developed a writing system based on hieroglyphs, which enabled the interpretation by epigraphs of not only contribution made in this disciplines to shed light on aspects of their historic evolution. Equally impressive is Mayas art which is evidenced in the careful planning of their ceremonial centers, their architecture based on the constructions of scaled graded pyramids, their sculpture, which keeps well today on their altars and historical monuments, the remains painted murals and the beauty of their work in jade, ceramic and stone. Copan, considered by many one of the most spectacular cities of the ancient Mayas civilization, is situated in the southwestern part of the Mayas region. It flourished during the 7th century of our era and is representative today of what Athens, to the old world; the cradle of its civilization. Because of this and other reason, UNESCO declared it a world heritage site in 1980. Exploring the ruins, you see a huge complex consisting of several plazas and many temples built on various levels. This larger site, Copán, is Mayan, whereas the smaller one, Las Sepulturas, is Lenca and about a kilometer from the main one. The many different areas of Copan offer visitors a feast of Mayan artifacts to discover. The detail and sheer volume of carvings and stelae are impressive; 4,509 structures have been detected with 3,450 of the structures found only 24 sq km surrounding the Principal Group.
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