Copan

Copan, the ruins of a Maya city just over the border in Honduras, is not as massive as Guatemala's Tikal in the North.  However, it makes up for lack of giant temples with intricate detail.

These stelae commemorate former kings, in this case the king known as 18 Rabbit.  Much of the color is gone but the detail remains.  Each stela has inscriptions on it chronicling what little we know of Maya history.

The staircase on the right is completely covered with heiroglyphics, off liits to the tourists' boots.

Like most other Maya sites I have visited, there is a large courtyard (above) and the ever popular ball court.  The ball game still remains unclear but it seems that the object was to get a small hard ball through one of the loops at the top using padded hips and shoulders.  The event mimicked an event in their mythology where the hero twins descended to the underworld, Xibalba, and defeated the two gods of death n vengeance for the previous deaths of their father and uncle in a similar match.  Long story, worth the read.  Popul Vuh is what remains of the recorded mythology of the Maya and could be referred to as their bible.