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. The structure in the background is Structure 4, which is located at the centre of the Main Plaza (click here to read about the stelae of Copan).
© Robin Heyworth – Photo taken 9th February 2002
