Copán
800 × 582 Copán

Altar C

Unlike many of the Altars and monuments at Copan, this one is clearly a single animal – a turtle. Combined with Stela C, it completes a Creation Story where the Maize God was decapitated and reincarnated as a cosmic turtle. The turtle features often in the art of Copan, and of the Maya in general (click here to read about the stelae of Copan).

© Robin Heyworth – Photo taken 9th February 2002

Altar of Stela C at Copan