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By Glenn Rigby
Located in Central America, Honduras shares a boundary with Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. It is also bounded by the Pacific Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Honduras (that's a lot of water).
Christopher Columbus reached the coast of Honduras in 1502, after which it became a part of Spain's vast empire. The Spanish ruled for approximately 300 years, and then Honduras became an independent nation in 1821. After two and a half decades of mostly military rule, a freely elected civilian government came to power in 1982. During the 1980s, Honduras proved a haven for anti-Sandinista contras fighting the Marxist Nicaraguan Government and an ally to Salvadoran Government forces fighting leftist guerrillas.
Besides lush rain forests, untouched cloud forests (which can rise up to nearly three thousand meters above sea level), mangroves, savannas and mountain ranges laden with pine and oak trees, Honduras harbors yet another priceless ecosystem: The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. In the Bay Islands it is no coincidence to swim with bottlenose dolphins, manta rays, parrotfish, schools of blue tang and even the colossal whale shark. The white sands, tall coconut palms and the easy-going Caribbean atmosphere provide refuge from the busy Central American cities, or across the Atlantic Ocean.
Copan: A city located in Western Honduras, near the Guatemala border. It has a population of about 24,000 inhabitants, and has an unmistakably colonial feel. Copan also houses famous ruins of the ancient city that once dominated the territory.
Outlined are some of the attractions of Copan's ancient Mayan ruins:
* The Ball Court is the most artistic of its type in Mesoamerica, with unique sidewall markers resembling macaw heads. Below is a picture of one of the Court's side buildings.
* The Acropolis is divided into the east and west court plazas and features the most monumental temples in Copan.
* The Great Plaza famous for its stelae and zo zoomorphic altars scattered around it. The Hieroglyphic Stairway holds the longest known text left by the Maya civilization. It was erected by ruler number 15, known as Smoke-Shell, and is believed to be a lineage tree recording the ascension and death of all Copan kings from Ya-Kuk-Mo to Smoke-Shell himself.
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