Copan's newest attraction is the impressive Copan Sculpture Museum. Designed to give the visitor a sense of how the ancient Maya viewed and recorded their world, the 4,000 square meter museum presents the most beautiful, original stelae of Copan and more than 3,000 pieces of sculpture. This is the first of seven modules which will house and conserve some 25,000 artifacts unearthed by archeologists.

Built by the Government of Honduras, the concept of the museum was derived from the sculpture conservation and study program begun in the 1980s, through the Honduran Institute of Anthrolpology and History (Instituto Hondureņo de Antropoligia e Historia). Experts from around the world agree that the best way to preserve the Copan sculptures is to remove them from contact with ground moisture and fluctuations in temperature.

Exhibits based on religion, fertility, sacrifice, warfare, the afterlife, nobility and other themes have been carefully placed, with easy-to-read explanations in both English and Spanish. Pieces of 18 different Mayan buildings and seven reconstructed buildings, a bench of the astronomers, countless mythological figures, and examples of practically every aspect of Mayan life are on display.

The museum building has been partially buried in a grass-covered mound at the entrance to the archaeological park, utilizing a modest design which complements the humble profile of Copan Ruinas. A stylized, open mouth of a mythical serpent serves as the entrance to the museum, symbolizing a portal from one world to the next.

As you walk through the 50-meter tunnel (similar to tunnels built by archeologists during excavations), you have a sense of entering another place, another time. You can almost make out the skeletal bones of the serpent as you traverse his "insides" in the softly-lit tunnel. Water has been allowed to seep through the walls in a few places, imparting dampness and the scent of the underground, or underworld. In no time at all, you'll find yourself "in the mood of Copan."

At the end of the tunnel, in the center of the museum is an exact replica of the sensational Rosalila Temple. This temple, discovered in nearly perfect condition by archeologists in 1991, was dedicated by Copan's tenth ruler, "Moon Jaguar," in the year A.D. 571. Rosalila Temple was so sacred to the Maya, that it was left intact, even with its roof crest, before being buried within the core of Structure 16, the central building of the Copan Acropolis.

Modern artisans have made highly accurate reconstructions of the elaborately-colored stucco reliefs that adorned all four sides of the temple. The temple represents a mountain, a place of creation, a source of life-giving water and the sacred maize plant. A key player in the creation myth, the Sun God rises majestically over the doorway with his wings outstretched across the building. The birds on the lower part of the building are representations of the first ruler and founder of the Copan dynasty, "K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo'" (Sun-faced blue-green Quetzal Macaw). On the upper story, serpents stream forth like smoke from an enormous incensario (incense burner) with a skeletal face, overlapping the giant image of the mountain deity.

Aligned with the compass points, the four-sided museum building reflects the horizontal ordering of the ancient Maya world, to which the four cardinal directions and the yearly path of the sun were fundamental. Four was the number associated with both the sun god and the perimeters of a milpa (cornfield). The Maya envisioned an axis through a center point connecting the human plane to the supernatural worlds above and below. This vertical axis is also reflected in the museum. Images of deities and denizens of the underworld appear on the first floor.

On the second floor, the world of the living is represented by important themes in the lives of Copan's ancient inhabitants. This floor also presents celestial deities, including sun disks surrounded by clouds and a throne decorated with a sky band. Framing the opening in the roof, is a ceiling decorated with Maya symbols for the celestial bodies and constellations of the night sky, all based on carvings from Copan. The metal railing that follows the ramp from the first floor and around the second, is made up of celestial symbols, copies from ancient Maya sky bands.

As you gaze at these remarkable structures and sculptures, surrounded by the magic and spirit world of Copan, you can't help but wonder what life must have been like in this ancient city...