Mayan Mystique

A Mayan Stelae from Copan, since moved to the Plaza Principal in the town of Copan Ruinas

This Winter I have been exploring some of Central America.  Mayan culture and the magnificent monuments they left behind have played a large role in the formation of my wanderlust and desire to see the remnants of great civilizations around the world.  I went to Chichen Itza on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico 40 years ago, and then Tulum and  the beautiful jungle shrouded ruins of Palenque.  Many years later a couple of college friends and I went to Uxmal, the Pu'uc route temples, Kabah, and then Xpuhil and Becan near the Guatamala border.  We went to Lamanai in Belize, and Tikal and El Ceibal in Guatemala.  I had dreamed for many years of visiting the Mayan ruins at Copan in Honduras.  The civilization here is known for creating the most refined masterpieces in Mayan sculpture.  Honduras is something of a rough and tumble country and transport can be challenging.so it was a long time coming to get myself there.  I took a 7 hour shuttle van ride leaving from the beautiful town of Antigua, Guatemala to Copan Ruinas just across the border in Honduras that left at 3:30 in the morning!  That was fun.  I survived and spent three glorious days exploring the ruins and the two museums associated with the site.  

While I was there I saw contemporary architecture and sculpture that honored the artistry of the ancient Mayans.  After independence from the Colonial rule of Spain, Mexico and countries in Central America strove to create national identities.  Copan is the most significant archaeological site in the Honduras and became a prominent symbol for the country, primarily in the town of Copan Ruinas near the ruins and Tegucigalpa, the capital.

A contemporary wall behind a stage in the town of Copan Ruinas based on Mayan architecture

Honduras is a country with magnificent landscapes and popular Caribbean Islands but there aren't a lot of tourists venturing beyond these areas.  The focus of this essay is a record of things I saw that celebrate the recreation of Honduran Mayan Identity.

An abandoned gift shop in the town of Copan Ruinas

There are still artisans sculpting stone in the region, keeping alive the tradition of Mayan architecture and art in more contemporary settings.  Sometimes it is historically precise in execution and sometimes it is more cartoonish.  I love stone sculpture and have spent much of my life visiting monuments great and small that celebrate man's desire to create lasting depictions of the secular and divine world.

A small stone carving shop near the Copan ruins

A pair of monkeys in front of a house in Copan Ruinas

A fountain in the Plaza Principal in Copan Ruinas with serpent heads

Copan is known for it's deep relief 360 degree sculpture which was a departure from a more bas-relief flat style of carving found in other Mayan city states.

A contemporary sculpture in Copan Ruinas Plaza Principal

The Mayan world had belief systems that deified its rulers and priests, in many ways putting them in a position as moderator between humanity and natural systems such as seasonal changes, weather, the celestial universe, and agriculture..  Rituals based on cultural needs motivated the construction of great monuments embued with the power to provide the necessary elements for a society to survive and prosper.  Rivalries between various Mayan city states played a significant role in the rise and fall of empires over thousands of years.  Histories were told in script using Mayan glyphs.

The great Hieroglyphic Stairway at Copan

Much of the recreation of Mayan art has been commissioned by archaeological work in restoring monuments.  Eventually, that plan at Copan is to sculpt copies of all the stelae  now residing under small rustic roofs and moving the originals to the Museo de Esculptura for protection.  

A magnificent stelae at Copan

I'm grateful that I was able to see the originals on site as they have energy that would be lacking in copies.  This is an interesting article on the work done by Harvard University's Peabody Museum about it's restoration work on the Hieroglyphic Stairway, the most famous architectural feature at Copan.  https://peabody.harvard.edu/cmhicurrent-researchhieriglyphic-stairway

Mayan glyphs

Mayan glyphs were an elaborate writing system, usually arranged in columns in pairs.  Each block represented a verb or noun, and sometimes a phonetic syllable where a word required more than one block.  They are quite beautiful and if you learn their meanings, quite readable.  There have been movements to revive the text in Mayan society.  They were carved in stone, or sculpted in stucco, or painted on paper in codices.

This is a contemporary series of glyphs I found in the town of Copan Ruinas

It seems very important to me that Mayan culture be kept alive through the continuation of expression of it's art.  Mesoamerican cultures where destroyed and built over by the Spanish conquistadors when they invaded the 'New World' so rapidly that when you really grasp the results it can be horrifying.  Most of the ruins you see today were cities that had already been abandoned due to drought and war and over time were buried in vegetation, which preserved them.

Although this has been cleared of vegetation, this is what many structures look like before being restored.

Precolombian temples were usually built in layers, burying the previous constructions of dynasties with larger ones as a display of power and changing beliefs.  Archaeologists often excavate tunnels into pyramids in order to reveal what the earlier rulers commissioned.  The most famous at Copan is called the Templo Rosalila, the Temple of the Sun.  

A signboard at Copan showing the location of the Rosalila Temple, later covered by a larger pyramid

It is sculpted from stucco and was painted in the brilliant red pigment along with green and yellow.  A recreation of the temple is the centerpiece of the Museo de Esculpturas adjacent to the ruins.  Construction using stucco ceased shortly after the 6th century as it required a great deal of wood to burn lime to make stucco, causing significant deforestation in the region.  Loss of forests resulted in a change in the climate and less rainfall, and erosion and flooding that had a negative affect on agriculture.  The Rosalila Temple was so sacred that rather than destroy it it was filled with rock and earth, sealing many artifacts inside.  It was then covered in a thick layer of plaster before building over it which preserved it's painted colors.

A recreation of the Templo Rosalila in the Museo de Esculpturals, Copan

Relief sculptures on the sides of the temple represent the Mayan God Witz, and mountain monster who rose from the sea as an act of creation.  His mouth is the entrance to the underworld, which rulers entered upon death to attain immortality.  There are symbolic references to waterlilies upon which various Gods resided.

A detail of the Mayan Mountain God Witz

One of the beautifully sculpted flint blades found inside the Rosalila Temple

The Mayan underworld is the home of a number of Gods often associated with death and suffering.  There are many caves in Central America that were considered divine passageways to the underworld.  The entrance was sometimes depicted as a mouth.  At the Museo de Esculpturas in Copan, you enter a tunnel through such a mouth.

The experience of passing through a tunnel of darkness guides you in to the divine underworld.  In a valley 14 miles (22 kilometers) of very slow travel on a rutted muddy road below remnants of beautiful cloud forest lies Aguas Termales Luna Jaguar, a wonderful hot spring complex.  Built by an Italian man who had a reverence for Mayan mythology, the pools are accessed by crossing a cable bridge over a river.  The path leads to a tunnel that creates a symbolic passageway into another realm.

The tunnel curves through a constructed hillside and emerges on the other side to stepping stones across a small stream.  It's a wonderful transition in to a magical garden of paths, hot streams and bathing pools.

I love hot springs in general and this place is very special, and remarkable because the spring itself is dangerously hot and the man who built the gardens did a considerable amount of construction, having to divert scalding water in order to build walls, bridges, pools, and a Mayan Temple.

Steaming hot water cascades in to the river over a man made waterfall.

A bridge flanked by two Jaguar heads leads to soaking pools and a steam pavillion via nicely constructed stone paths and steps.

Steam rises through holes in the floor of the pavilion from the hot stream

A quiet and friendly guard who has worked here for many years makes sure you don't venture beyond the barricades in to the very hot stream.  I was lucky the day I went as there were not a lot of tourists, just a couple of extrañeros and some very happy Hondurans who were fun to hang out with.  Mostly I had the pools I soaked in all to myself.  The first pool I soaked in was the most elaborately constructed.  

A pool built in to the hillside with a cave

A Jaguar Head dress mask in the pool

I'm a happy man

There is a curved cave that goes to a round altar like seat illuminated by a round hole in dome above it.  The illumination of natural light is beautiful and the acoustics are great.

A subterranean pool reached by the curved spiraling tunnel with a round altar like seat.

Across the path from this pool is a cascading fountain that reminded my of Italian water gardens I've visited, like the Villa Lante and Villa d'Este, but with a Mayan motif.

The source of the hot spring is celebrated by a Mayan pyramid painted in the classic red color of Copan that bridges the hot and cold streams that are mixed to create the varying temperatures of the pools.  The steam rising around it makes feel like something from a dream.,

Mayan Temple built over the source of the hot spring

The man and his crew that built this obviously had a great deal of ambition and wanted to create something impressive, powerful, and sacred.

Copan style stelae and altar disks flank the stepped pyramid built over the hot spring at Luna Jaguar

My favorite spot at the springs is a wonderful cascade coming from the hottest pool that gives you a brilliant massage as you are showered with hot water.  I spent a lot of time sitting here, a true manifestation of paradise.  Oh to have this in my own garden!

Below this cascade are a series of pools that are cooler, and a round stepped tower topped with a four faced mask, that is meant to be circumambulated 5 times.  I watched the Honduran family devoutly do this and followed suit.  We spent four hours in heaven at the springs, clearly a blessing before we made the slog in the van back to Copan Ruinas.  

We all made the trip 5 times around this tower wading in the water.

There is still a sense of devotion to the Mayan belief system in the culture to modern day people in the region that I witnessed from time to time.

From Copan I traveled to La Ceiba on the Caribbean coast, which has a very different culture.  From there I went inland to the capital of Tegucigalpa, which is a city of great contrasts spread across a series of hills.  The modern areas are much more prosperous while the old city center can be rather squalid.  I had a nice place to stay in that area and on my last day, I walked toward the river to visit a park I had spotted from the outside without knowing what lies within.  Parque Concordia made the trip to this city worthwhile.  Behind stucco railings and gates lies a fantasy wonderland of NeoMayan architecture and art.

The entrance to Parque Concordia

I had no idea what I was about to discover.  The first thing I saw was a wonderfully rendered pyramid with feathered rattlesnakes representing the Mayan God Kukulcán, who is closely related to the Aztec God Quetzalcoatl.  This pyramid was inspired by what is popularly called El Castillo at Chichen Itza in Mexico.  

The Pyramid of Kukulcán

When I was doing research on Parque Concordia I found old images of the pyramid with the sloping sides covered in clipped lawn.  These were removed when the park was restored after the devastation brought by Hurricane Mitch in 1998.  More than 11,000 people were killed during that storm event, and it is said that it set Honduras back 15 years.  The park is near the river and was buried in mud and debris.  All of the lamp posts were broken off and it was many years before the park was uncovered and restored.

A historic image of the pyramid with grassy slopes

The park was designed by Costa Rican born, Mexican Landscape Architect Augusto Morales y Sanchez, who moved to Tegulcigalpa and worked on civic and private projects throughout his professional career.  During the building of Parque La Concordia he set up his design studio on site.  A previous park with an ornate but dilapidated kiosk was removed as part of a modernization plan for the city.  

A plaque on the trellis gave me the name of the Landscape Architect who designed the park, which helped me with research.

The park, located in the Barrio Abajo, once on the outskirts of the city near the banks of the Rio Choluteca was reconceived to create a national identity that linked the ruling aristocracy with the grandeur of Mayan heritage.  It's an elegantly arranged theme park where you could promenade amongst a variety of monuments, pergolas, benches, sculptures, reflecting pools, streams, fountains and bridges.  The blending of elements is a playful fantasy landscape.  

Two skilled stone carvers and a crew of masons worked on site with Sanchez y Morales to design build the variety of features in the park.  The work is beautifully executed and rather quirky in the way elements are combined.  Low walls that once retained the grass slopes on the pyramid have strange gargoyle like creatures with outstretched arms and ornamental glyphs that are purely decorative and a departure from Mayan art.

Gargoyle like yogis once supported the sloped lawns on the pyramid.

At the base of the stairs are carved altars of the Mayan rain God Chac.

Chac, the God of rain

The structure at the top of the pyramid is made from bands of carved locally quarried red and grey colored stone with Chac masks and decorative reliefs.

The plantings in the park have grown significantly to provide the effective ambience of ruins in a jungle.  As the fig trees matured they displaced much of the original ornamental plantings.

Large fig trees have displaced the original gardens but work well amongst the structures.

There are two beautiful pergolas in the park that have been restored after substantial damage from the hurricane.  The columns are sculpted with Mayan rulers and priests if ceremonial regalia, and enlarged glyphs.  The horizontal trellis has Bat like faces which would be a God of the Underworld, or are they gargoyles like the ones around the pyramid.  Large Bougainvillea vines cover the trellises providing shady places to relax.

The central axis entrance is framed by Kukulkán serpents.

Serpents framing the entrance to a pergola

The benches are works of art mixing up a variety of architectural elements.  The floor beneath the pergolas is paved with beautiful concrete tiles with star patterns.  

One of the pergolas has a half circle wading and reflecting pool that no longer holds water but must have been quite beautiful in it's heyday.  

A reflecting pool

At the center of the park is a round raised bed with a copy of Stelae C, and the giant tortoise alter found at Copan.  Stelae C represents the Mayan ruler 18-Rabbit, the most powerful of Copan's dynasties.  The original stelae was carved to commemorate the completion of the first K'atun in the Mayan calendar, a period of 20 tuns, which is close to 20 years.  The tortoise alter lies to the west of the stelae at Copan and has a head on each end.  This tortoise is a representation as a cosmic passageway.  12 heads set on a encircling low wall might relate to the calendar.

A great deal of construction and many ceremonies took place to commemorate a ruler's K'atun.

The Giant Tortoise Altar at Copan

Head of the Giant Tortoise Altar at Copan

The rest of the park is filled with a variety of follies, including miniature pyramids and a Mayan ball court that were set on an island in a lake with waterways crossed by bridges.  

A pair of miniature pyramids and a Mayan Ball Court

Mayan ball courts date back more than 3,000 years and were an important  ceremonial sport representing a battles between the forces of darkness and light.  The ball court at Copan has a large platform for viewers on one end.  Two to six players were involved on opposing teams.  A hard rubber ball was kept aloft using the right hip, elbow, and shoulder, passing it to the other team, preferably through the stone ring on the sides.  The ball was not supposed to touch the ground.  Tournaments lasted up to two weeks and sometimes included sacrifices.

Mayan Ball Court

The Ball Court at Copan

On the edge of the lake is a house that would belong to a wealthy Honduran or politician as a token display of inclusion in the identity of the country.

The house of a wealthy and influential Honduran

The park has a grotto inside a rustic stone structure that could symbolize an unexcavated ruin.  A fig tree drapes over the grotto like it would in the jungle. 

Inside the grotto is a small table.

Overlooking the lake is a raised terrace veneered with a mix of colorful stone accessed by ceremonial stairs and a strangely inappropriate looking French style faux bois concrete log bridge and faux bamboo railings.

Faux bamboo railings

The steps to the terrace are more in fitting with the Mayan theme, and the walls of the terrace have wonderful stone work using a mix of colors and shaped stones to make arches and frame masks that were once fountains.  It must have been very special when all of the waterworks were functioning.  

A stone staircase accesses the raised terrace

The terrace is hollow underneath and had round openings  framed in cut stone.  The railing on the terrace has stepped walls with lattice reliefs.

The work in these walls is beautifully rendered

Serpent benches with relief backs ornament the raised terrace wall

A close up of one of these wonderful benches.

Water once flowed through masks into the pools below the terrace.

A Mayan mask fountain

There are arched bridges with pointed stone frames that showcase the artistry of the masons.

Important commemorative altars found at Copan are carved with reliefs of rulers and priests, a copy of which was carved for the park.

An original altar at Copan and a Mayan woman meditating in reverence.

I have to say I really loved this park and I walked through most of it's paths a few times admiring all of it's wonderful surprises.  When I first posted some photos on my Gardens by Jeffrey Bale page on Facebook a woman who follows me commented that she grew up in Tegulcigalpa and had fond memories of visiting the park when its ponds were full and fountains were flowing.  

I found this video online with a collection of photos of the park in it's heyday.  So lovely.

I'm in Nicaragua now, on the Island of Ometepe in the middle of Lake Nicaragua, the largest in Central America.  It is far from the Mayan world but the mystique travels far.  I saw this rainbow painted pyramid in the playground of a fun park in the town of Altagracia.  

Mayan slide in Altagracia, Nicaragua

When I write these essays I end up doing a ton of research and am grateful to the sources I find on the internet because I learn so much along the way.   It breadth of the subject can get to be overwhelming and I probably ramble all over the place and make some assumptions that can be debatable.  Thanks for bearing with me, and for reading this.  Jeffrey