GRAN PLAZA - PLAZA DE LOS MONUMENTOS

This great place on the site consists of the small temple 4 and its 4 stairs, and a stelas garden. The square lies north of the Ball Game, the Staircase at the Hieroglyphs and the Acropolis. According to archaeologists, this space served as a meeting place of the people who came to listen to the king, participate in various public ceremonies and, occasionally, organize ball games.

The majority of the stelas found in the northern part of the Great Place were erected under the reign of Rabbits. Several of these stelas have the same structure: on the one hand, the king's figure, on the other, a series of glyphs indicating the date of creation of the monument of stone and the opportunity for which it was erected. Note that some of them keep traces of coloured pigments that are painted. Some archaeologists believe that the distribution order of the nine stelas would have a precise meaning: they would have been arranged in a symbolic fashion. Indeed, when discovered, the majority of monuments were buried on the ground, drilled or buried. Careful study of foundations allowed them to be resettled at their original location. Each stele rests on a viable base which used to host religious offerings: éclats of pottery, bird bones and fish edges were found at the foot of the stelas.

Other stelas occur in the valley of Copán. The majority were built by Butz Hunab K'awil, the twelfth king of the dynasty, also known as Smoke Imix God K. It was assumed that they served as support for the celestial and porte voûte (Bats).