TOPOGRAPHY OP HONDURAS. 263 



Topography, 



Copan, wLicli has given its name to the westernmost department of the 

 republic, has become famous for the surrounding ruins, which were first described. 

 iu 1576 by Palacio in a report to Philip II. They were then forgotten till the 

 present century, when they were again visited and described by Galindo, Stephens, 

 and Catherwood. The chief building rises to a height of 60, and in some parts 

 even 100 feet on the banks of the River Copan, three-quarters of a mile to the east 

 of the village. Since its erection the river has evidentlj^ shifted its bed farther 

 south, where it has eroded the base of the edifice. Trees also spring from the 

 fissures in the masonry, while the summits are entirely clothed in vegetation. 

 An opening, to which the pile is indebted for its Spanish name of Las Ventanas. 

 the " Windows," reveals the dense thicket now filling the inner courts of the temple. 



The irregular enclosing walls on the sides away from the river are flanked by 

 pyramids, and interrupted by broad flights of steps, mostly forced upwards by the 

 roots of trees. The numerous idols, which have also been displaced or else half 

 buried in foliage, consist of sandstone monoliths, carved with a profusion of details 

 unsurpassed by those of the Plindu temples. The central figui-e, of colossal size, 

 but carefully modelled, is surrounded by reliefs of all kinds, ornaments, symbols, 

 and hieroglyphics, differing little from those covering the Maya monuments. 

 The huge blocks described as altars are for the most part less elaborately 

 embellished than the vertical steles of the idols ; but most of them reproduce the 

 type of high heads, prominent jaws, and receding foreheads figured on the temples 

 of Tabasco and Yucatan. 



Still more remarkable is a semicircular altar, exactly like the tai-ki of the 

 Chinese, symbolising the " great vault," the " pole of the world," the union of 

 force and matter, the principle without beginning or end. 



The whole group of ruins stretches for some miles along the river, and an 

 eminence 2,000 feet high on the opposite side is also crowned with crumbling 

 walls, while huge blocks, intended for fresh structures, have been left unfinished 

 in the surrounding quarries. The village of Cachaj'ia, seven miles above Copan, 

 also occupies the site of a ruined city, 



Santa Rom, capital of the department of Copan, lies in the fertile district of 

 Sensenti, which is watered by the Santiago branch of the Ulua, and which yields 

 the be^ tobacco in Honduras. The Majocote affluent of the same river traverses 

 Gracias, which is also the capital of a department abounding in mineral wealth. 

 Gracias was founded by Alvarado's lieutenant, Chavez, in 1536. 



Santa Barbara, on a lateral tributary of the Santiago, is the chief town of the 

 favoured department which comprises the rich plain of Sula, the alluvial lands 

 of the lower Ulua and Chamelicon, and the best ports on the Atlantic coast. But 

 the Sula district, densely peopled before the conquest, is now almost deserted, 

 though the town of San Pedro de Sula, on the west side of the plain, is the most 

 important agricultural centre in the state. 



The chief seaports in the department of Santa Barbara, and on the whole sea- 



