Museum of Mayan Sculpture

The Museum of Mayan Sculpture in the town of Copán Ruinas, a short walk from the main plaza, houses the finest Maya sculpture removed from the archaeological site for conservation and display. The building's centrepiece is a full-scale polychrome replica of the Rosalila Temple — the buried inner temple found perfectly preserved inside Temple 16 — which occupies two floors of the central atrium. The original, still entombed in the hillside of the Acropolis, can be visited through the site tunnels.

The museum also displays original stelae and altar stones in excellent condition, with lighting and labelling that is far superior to what is possible outdoors. The final room upstairs gives a view across the rooftops of Copán Ruinas to the surrounding hills. Admission requires a separate ticket from the main archaeological site; combination tickets are available at the site entrance.

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A story
The Rosalila Temple, discovered intact inside Temple 16 in 1989, was the most significant find at Copán in decades. Unlike most buried temples, which were stripped of their decoration before being encased in a new structure, Rosalila was found with its painted stucco decoration almost completely preserved — the red and green pigments still vivid after 1,300 years of burial. The original structure was left underground; the full-scale replica in the museum is the only way to understand what it looked like.

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