Through the lowlands of southeastern Guatemala, the Río Motagua winds toward the

Caribbean. Beside broad farmlands and discrete river groves it flows between the smooth
steep slopes of the Sierra de las Minas and the rugged Montaña Espíritu Santo.

In a silent clearing among the trees, a thirty-five foot sandstone monolith

rises from the still grasses of the Motagua basin. The hardness of the stone
and the moderation of the elements have preserved its surface much as it
was carved by the hand of man over 1,200 years ago.

This gigantic marker stands as a monument to the Ancient Maya

Civilization, and to the Mayan lord of the forgotten city of Quiriguá who is
depicted, over three times life size, on its face. His somber face, carved in
the half-round, is unmistakably Mayan. His body is intricately adorned, from ornate boots
to a full headdress. He holds the staff of authority, and looks down with immutable severity
across his city, oblivious to its extinction.

Who was he, and what power did he hold over the people of this small city? The mystery of
the Maya is deep. We may never know how they achieved such a high degree of
civilization in the Central American jungles, or why that civilization vanished so suddenly,
so completely, and without a clue over 1,000 years ago -- leaving the people themselves as
simple and uncultivated as they were before its rise.

Twenty-one other monuments -- the finest examples of Classic Mayan stone carving --
stand nearby. But the city itself has declined into piles of rubble, which archeologists are
only now piecing into the temples and acropoli that enclosed the plaza of the monuments.

The production of such monolithic stone monuments, called stelae (singular stela, or stele),
with their dated texts of hieroglyphs, defines the beginnings -- and the end -- of the Classic
Period of Maya Civilization, from about 300 to 900 AD. This golden age was also
characterized by polychrome pottery and use of the corbeled, or 'false' arch in architecture.
The stelae remain the principal written chronicles of this lost civilization, as well as the key
to their highly advanced calendric system.

Other Mayan centers erected stelae much earlier and in greater profusion, but the stelae at
Quiriguá are unsurpassed in their style and technique. Like most Mayan monuments, they
were erected to commemorate the passage of time, and significant historic events. During
its brief period of erecting stelae, from the early 8th century until 810 AD, Quiriguá was
one of only two cities to regularly erect monuments marking the end of five-year periods --
the quarter-katun, or hotun.

Stela E, mentioned above, was dedicated at Quiriguá in 771 AD, and is the largest known
quarried stone in the Maya world. It stands 35 feet tall, 5 feet wide and 4 feet thick; it
weighs in at 130,000 pounds.

It seems likely -- because of its sudden burst of mastery -- that the artisans, and perhaps the
rulers of Quiriguá came from Copán, Honduras, a major Mayan center less than 100
kilometers south across the mountains. Copán had been erecting monuments for 250 years
before Quiriguá, and both cities apparently ceased within five years of each other.

These huge stone monolithic sculptures, weighing up to 65 tons, were artfully carved
without the benefit of metal tools. Stone chisels, driven by other stones or wooden mallets,
were the only tools available; and yet the Mayan sculptors achieved not only a high level of
artisty, but also a remarkable degree of naturalism and refined detail. Most of the
monuments face north, allowing the early morning sun to highlight the relief of the
carvings.

The sandstone used at Quiriguá is considerably harder than the limestone found at most
other Mayan sites, and held the artist to relatively more simple designs than the rococo
detail achieved, for example, in the more manageable andesite at Copán. It is perhaps worth
considering that the Mayan elite might have established the small ceremonial center at
Quiriquá largely because of its proximity to this resource of more enduring stone-carving
materials.

The monuments at Quiriguá are unique in several other respects. Few other
sites display full frontal views of the human figure, a later departure from
the traditional profile depictions. Quiriguá also has numerous excellent
examples of a fairly rare form of 'longhand' Mayan glyphs which use full
animal and human figures, instead of smaller symbols or variations on
abbreviated 'head-type' glyphs to represent the same meanings.  There are
only three other known examples of the  full-figured glyphs in the entire
Mayan world.

The most striking of the sculptures at Quiriguá, however, are the zoomorphs, great
unquarried sandstone boulders carved to represent animals. The boulders are covered with
figures and glyphs in the characteristic Quiriguá mixture of low and high relief, and
represent some of the most intricately carved designs in the Maya world. Nothing like them
is found at any other site.

Zoomorph P and its altar, Altar O, dedicated in 795 AD, sit before the stairway of a ruined
palace facing the main plaza at Quiriguá. It stands seven feet high and over eleven feet
wide, covered with figures, masks, and small glyphs. Another huge zoomorph nearby is in
the form of a tiger (jaguar), which has a human face in its open mouth, with glyphs all
around its body. The altar of Zoomorph O, which flanks Zoomorph P in front of the ruined
palace, is exceptional for its flamboyantly executed dancing figure and a series of large
full-figure glyphs.

This fine collection of gigantic stone sculptures is arranged in a regular pattern on the main
plaza at Quiriguá. None of the stones were simply carved in situ at the quarry; each one was
carried in and erected in place before the carving began. Together, the regular arrangement
of monuments set off the surrounding temples.
Today, the temples of Quiriguá lie in rubble around the pleasant green park that was once
the great plaza of the city. But the silent stone monuments among the trees still speak of a
great civilization -- one we may never fully know, but can always admire.