Explore the Margarita Tomb of the Founder and Queen of Copán
A guided tour
Underneath the hieroglyphic stairway and temples here are over 5 kilometers of tunnels to the deepest and oldest parts of the city.
Directly below the Rosalila Temple is the tomb of the founder of the city, Yax K'uk Mo'.
Illustration of Temple 16 and Rosalila Temple created by the Asociación Copán.
Let's head inside to find it!
Archaeologists use these tunnels to understand the history of the people that lived here.
In this entryway, we are able to view an elaborately decorated bench carved with glyphs.
The Motmot marker was found here. It depicts the peaceful transition of power from the Founder to his son.
We need to go down deep within the temples to one of the earliest phases of people living at Copán.
The lower we get, the further back in time we go.
This is the corner of Motmot, one of the oldest structures found at Copán.
For the preservation of the stucco, this area is totally reburied now.
It's this way to Margarita--let's go!
The tomb is only accessible through these tunnels, and not from the temple above.
These tunnels explore many different periods that people lived at Copán and are essential to our understanding of the site.
Feel free to explore and click 'Next' to move to back to the Guided Tour.
We're almost halfway to the tomb here--we have to keep going lower.
Down this low, we find the stairs to the original platform that the Rosalila Temple was built on.
This is one of the lowest and oldest periods of the city.
The tomb is up through this small gap. We're getting closer.
We made it! That glowing opening ahead is the Margarita Tomb.
The multi-chambered Tomb of the Founder of the city and Queen.
Welcome to the Margarita Tomb at Copán down these stairs!
The entire tomb is a representation of the Founder to honor him and the Queen.
Look at this: this painted stucco relief is over 1600 years old!
The paint on it is still almost perfectly preserved to this day.
The relief depicts a Quetzal and Macaw with intertwined necks.
This is a visual representation of the name of the Founder, Yax K'uk Mo', which means 'resplendent green quetzal-macaw'.
Around the quetzal and macaw is the cosmic monster representing all of creation.
You can scroll or zoom in to see the details in the stucco.
Let's go deeper.
The Tomb had an upper chamber with stucco reliefs where there were many offerings--and a lower chamber where the bodies were buried.
Near the burials is also the Hunal tomb that we see here.
This monumental stucco mask is the representation of the Founder of Copán as the Sun God, Kinich Ahau.
The burials are nearby this way.
Just down here is the tomb of the Founder.
We made it! This is where the Founder, Yax K'uk Mo' was buried.
His body was laid out on this stone slab.
The founder was honored and revered.
They believed that he was chosen by the gods to found and rule the city.
He was buried here with many offerings such as jade jewelry, ceremonial flints, jaguar nails, and flower remains.
Directly nearby is the tomb of the Queen of Copán and wife of Founder Yax K'uk Mo'.
This is a repurposed bench that was moved to her tomb.
The tombs of the Founder and Queen are right next to each other, almost touching--but not quite.
This is the Tomb of the Queen--totally covered in red.
It has earned her the name of the 'Red Queen'.
When the Queen was buried here, her entire body was covered in Red along with the stone slab.
She was later taken out, covered in red another time, and reburied.
This red paint is made with cinnabar, and highly toxic to people because it contains lethal amount of mercury.
It was only used in the most sacred Maya rituals.
The Queen was buried here with over 2,000 sacred offering items, including rings, baskets, pottery, mirrors, and more.
Learn more about the Red Queen and continue to explore Copán at the Sculpture Museum
Hosted on Spacery