Situated at the far south-eastern end of the old Maya empire, Copán shows off some
of the Maya's expert stone carving. The complex art is found among step pyramids, altars, plazas, and a Mayan ball court, though much has been restored to counteract the relentless forces of nature that had reclaimed much of the original structures. The jungle growth has been tempered and cleaned up, but numerous trees can be found sprouting up through stone structures. Earthquakes caused the collapse of the ornamental stairway. The nearby river wandered over and washed away many secondary buildings and began in on the main complex, leaving a vertical 
cross section of the construction behind before being diverted by modern efforts. It is still evident, however, that Copán became an unusually affluent city by Mayan standards, coming a long way from the one-stone-structure town it started out as in the 9th century BC. Growing to perhaps 20,000 inhabitants, overpopulation may have led to its ultimate demise, though its people and its history remain mysterious, as do the Maya in general.
Main Plaza and a carving
The site is impressive to walk through in its restored state. Trying to
picture its large structures, painted brightly in colors that contrast distinctly with the surrounding jungle green, one enters a mysterious world where fact and fantasy become blurred. The ruins begin to come alive, and one can nearly hear, see, and smell an old scene. Slowly the crumbling rocks find their rightful places, thatched roofs and stands and other temporary structures appear, and the general chaos of any inhabited place becomes evident. Children play in the plazas, distractedly dodging chattering women and milling livestock. Smoke rises from the morning fires and wafts away into the clear morning. Men prepare for an intense ball game to be watched by the ruler of the city and his court, perched high upon his throne, the mob of commoners down below closer to the action, jeering and heckling.
Ball court and Ornamental Staircase
That may be entirely fiction, but with the complex to yourself in the early hours of the morning, the imagination is free to wander. To be sure, the now silent ruins were once vibrant with life,
the sounds and colors and smells of which still echo faintly amongst the invading jungle and dead stone piles. Who were these people who accomplished so much but disappeared so abruptly, leaving little behind to aid those who came to walk their grounds many hundreds of years later? It leads one to wonder if a similar fate could find our modern civilization. We consider ourselves far more advanced, but then the Maya were the accomplished people of their day, and whatever brought about their end, it is evident it cared little about the many accomplishments and wonders the 
Maya had wrought. Intricate stone carvings, large structures vainly painted, it all was slowly reclaimed by nature's unfaltering patience; what hadn't yet succumbed has only been temporarily protected, or rather, the process has merely been reduced. Might some modern historian or tourist wander throughout a future forest of steel and concrete and trees, trying to decipher just who we once were? It is a sobering thought, especially amongst the ruins of a long and lost civilization. 
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