Editing Copán (section)

===Modern history===
[[File:Head, Structure 20, Copan, Honduras - Meso-American collection - Peabody Museum, Harvard University - DSC05659.JPG|thumb|upright|A head from the Structure 10L-20 that currently is at the Peabody Museum of Harvard University]]
The first post-Spanish conquest mention of Copán was in an early colonial period letter dated 8 March 1576. The letter was written by Diego García de Palacio, a member of the [[Royal Audiencia of Guatemala|Royal Audience of Guatemala]], to king [[Philip II of Spain]].{{sfn|Kelly|1996|p=277}} French explorer [[Jean-Frédéric Waldeck]] visited the site in the early 19th century and spent a month there drawing the ruins.{{sfn|Kelly|1996|p=278}} Colonel [[Juan Galindo]] led an expedition to the ruins in 1834 on behalf of the government of Guatemala and wrote articles about the site for English, French and North American publications.{{sfn|Kelly|1996|p=278}} [[John Lloyd Stephens]] and [[Frederick Catherwood]] visited Copán and included a description, map and detailed drawings in Stephens' ''Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatán'', published in 1841.{{sfn|Kelly|1996|p=278}} The site was later visited by British archaeologist [[Alfred Maudslay]].{{sfn|Kelly|1996|p=278}} Several expeditions sponsored by the [[Peabody Museum of Harvard University]] worked at Copán during the late 19th and early 20th centuries,{{sfn|Kelly|1996|pp=278–279}} including the 1892–1893 excavation of the Hieroglyphic Stairway by [[John G. Owens]] and [[George Byron Gordon (archaeologist)|George Byron Gordon]].{{sfn|Pezzati|2012|p=5}} The Carnegie Institution also sponsored work at the site in conjunction with the government of Honduras.{{sfn|Kelly|1996|p=279}}

The Copán buildings suffered significantly from forces of nature in the centuries between the site's abandonment and the rediscovery of the ruins. After the abandonment of the city the [[Copán River]] gradually changed course, with a [[meander]] destroying the eastern portion of the acropolis (revealing in the process its [[stratification (archaeology)|archaeological stratigraphy]] in a large vertical [[cut (archaeology)|cut]]) and apparently washing away various subsidiary architectural groups, including at least one courtyard and 10 buildings from Group 10L–2.<ref>{{harvnb|Sharer|Traxler|2006|pp=335, 339}}; Fash et al 2005, p.268.</ref> The cut is an important archaeological feature at the site, with the natural erosion having created an enormous cross-section of the acropolis. This erosion cut away a large portion of the eastern part of the acropolis and revealed a vertical cross-section that measures {{convert|37|m|ft|sp=us}} high at its tallest point and {{convert|300|m|ft|sp=us}} long.<ref name="Sharer & Traxler 2006, p. 339"/> Several buildings recorded in the 19th&nbsp;century were destroyed, plus an unknown amount of the acropolis that was eroded before it could be recorded.<ref name="Sharer & Traxler 2006, p. 339"/> In order to avoid further destruction of the acropolis, the [[Carnegie Institution for Science|Carnegie Institution]] redirected the river to save the archaeological site, diverting it southwards in the 1930s; the dry former riverbed was finally filled in at the same time as consolidation of the cut in 1990s.{{sfn|Sharer|Traxler|2006|pp=68, 335, 339}} '''Structures 10L–19, 20, 20A''' and '''21''' were all destroyed by the Copán River as it eroded the site away, but had been recorded by investigators in the 19th&nbsp;century.<ref name="Sharer & Traxler 2006, p. 339"/>

{{Infobox protected area
| name = Copán Ruins Cultural Monument
| alt_name = Ruinas de Copán
| iucn_category = III
| iucn_ref = <ref name = unep>UNEP-WCMC (2022). Protected Area Profile for Ruinas de Copán from the World Database of Protected Areas, March 2022. [https://www.protectedplanet.net/3358]</ref>
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| area_km2 = .66
| designation = [[Cultural monument]]
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| designated = 1982
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| administrator = Instituto de Conservación Forestal and [[Instituto Hondureño de Antropología e Historia]]
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| world_heritage_site = Maya Site of Copan (1980)
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UNESCO approved funding of US$95,825 between 1982 and 1999 for various works at the site.{{sfn|UNESCO World Heritage Centre}} The cultural monument covers 66 hectares. Looting remains a serious threat to Copán. A tomb was looted in 1998 as it was being excavated by archaeologists.{{sfn|Schuster|1998}}