Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-02-10
OLDEST AMERICAN CITY.
REMARKABLE DISCOVERIES RECENT.
LY MADE AT coPAN.


Cradle of Maya Civilization = Remains
Of Great Temples and Palaces "A Huge
Structure 500 Feet High.
The Central American explorer,
George Byron Gordon, contributes an
article entitled 'tThe Mysterious City
of Honduras" to the Century. This
gives an account of the recent remark
able discoveries made at Copan. Mr..
Gordon says
Hidden away among the mountains
Of Honduras, in a beautiful valley
country, where remoteness is char
acteristic attribute of places, is unusu-
ally secluded, Copan is one of the
greatest mysteries Of the ages. After
the publication, in 1910, of Stephens
account of his visit to the ruins, which
made them known for the first time to
the world, the interest awakened by
his graphic description, and the draw
ings that accompanied it from the
skillful pencil of Catherwood, re-
lapsed, and until within the last de-
cade writer's on the subject of Ameri-
can archaeology were dependent en-
tirely for information concerning
Copan upon the writings of Stephens,
which were regarded by many with
skepticism and mistrust. Not only do
the recent explorations confirm the ac-
count given by Stephens as regards
the magnitude and Importance of the
ruins, but the collection of relics now
in the Peabody museum is sufficient
to convince the most skeptical that
here are the remains of a city, un-
known to history, as remarkable and
as worthy of our careful consideration
as any of the ancient centres of civili-
zation in the Old World. Whatever
the origin of its people, this old city
is distinctly American-the growth of
American soil and environment. The
gloomy forest, the abode of monkeys
and jaguars, which clothed the valley
at the time of Stephens visit, was in
great part destroyed about thirty
years ago by colony from Guatemala,
who came to plant in the fertile soil
of the valley the tobacco for which,
much more than for the ruins, that
valley is famous throughout Central
America today. They left the trees
that grew upon the higher structures,
forming picturesque grove, rem
nant of which still remains-a few
cedars and ceibas of gigantic proper
tions, clustered about the ruins of the
temples shrouding them in sombre
shade, and sending their huge roots
into the crevices and unexplored
chambers and vaults and galleries of
the vast edifces.
The area comprised within the limits
of the old city consists of level plain
seven or eight miles long and two
miles wide at the greatest. This plain
is covered with the remains of stone
houses, doubtless the habitations. of
the wealthy. The streets, squares and
courtyards were paved with stone or
with white cement made from lime
and powdered rock, and the drainage
was accomplished by means of covered
canals and underground sewers built
of stone and cement. On the slopes
merous ruins, and even on the high
est peaks fallen columns and ruined
structures may be seen.
On the right bank of the CopaE
river, in the midst of the city, stands
the principal group of structures-the
temples, palaces and buildings of
public character. These form part of
what has been called, for want of
better name, the Main Structure-a
vast, irregular pile, rising from the
plain i'll steps and terraces of masonry
and terminating in several great pyra-
midal elevations, each topped by the
remains of temple which, before our
excavations begun, looked like huge
pile of fragments bound together by
the roots of trees, while the slopes of
the pyramids and the terraces and
pavements below are strewn with the
ruins of these superb edifices. This
huge structure, unlike the great pyra-
mids of Egypt and other works of
similar character, is not the embodi-
ment of definite idea, built in accor-
dance with preconceived plan and
for specific purpose, but is rather the
complex result of long process of de-
velopment, corresponding to the
growth of culture a~l keeping pace
with the expanding >.tes of the peo-
pie or the demands OF their national
life. Its.sides face the four cardinal
points; its greatest length from north
to south is about eight hundred feet,
and from east to west it measured
originally nearly as much, but part
of the eastern side has been carried
away by the swift current of the river
which flows directly against it. The
interior of the structure is thus ex-
posed in the form of cliff one hun
dred and twenty feet high, presenting
a complicated system of buried walls
and floors down to the waters edge
doubtless the remains of older build
ings, occupied for time, and aban-
doned to serve as foundations for more
elaborate structures, but sculptured
monuments as well. The theory
of development, though it cannot be
set aside. seems inadequate to explain
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