Around noon we arrived at Quirigua to find the site sunny, hot, and humid. In other words, a typical day in Quirigua. This trip was my 2nd; my 1st trip to Quirigua was in March 2007 (which, like Tikal, I also sadly failed to photograph or document). This trip I forgot to apply mosquito repellent and swat the little critters, so they ate me alive. My legs were bloody by the time we left. On the plus side, I loved Quirigua’s energy; the stelae and zoomorphs felt magnetic. I had a blast exploring and photographing the main areas. However, I later learned that the site was larger than what most of us visited, so I vowed to return and visit the complete site on my next trip.
Quirigua is a small site like Labna in the Yucatan; you can walk the whole site in about 20-30 minutes. And the main attraction, unlike most Mayan sites, is the Stelae not the temples. I find the stelae at Quirigua more stiff and formal than the relaxed and fluid stelae of Copan.
According to the sign at the site entrance, the Mayans founded Quirigua around 426 A.D. Quirigua was a commercial center located in the margin of the Motagua River. Jade and Obsidian from the Guatemalan highlands came through this river to Quirigua and on to Mayan cities in Honduras, Belize, and the Yucatan peninsula.
According to the LONELY PLANET GUIDE to GUATEMALA, 2nd Edition, January 2004, ISBN 1-74059-293-X, page 220, Quirigua was a dependency of Copan for most of the Classic Period. Quirigua’s leader Cauac Sky (725-784 A.D.) captured and later beheaded Copan’s ruler 18 Rabbit in 737 A.D., thereby gaining Quirigua’s independence from Copan. Cauac Sky then spent the next 38 years building stelae and zoomorphs dedicated to his glory. Cauac Sky’s son Sky Xul (784-800 A.D.) lost the rulership to a usurper, Jade Sky. Jade Sky was Quirigua’s last great ruler, continuing Cauac Sky’s building boom and reconstructing the Acropolis on a grander scale.
According to QUIRIGUA: A Guide to an Ancient Maya City, Matthew Looper, Copyright 2007, ISBN 978-99922-722-5-1, pages 29-30, the earliest dated monument at Quirigua was Stela U. The Mayans dedicated Stela U in 480 A.D., and records the continuing influence of Copan. Archaeologists found evidence in the royal precinct at Copan that the rulers of Copan had close contacts with Tikal, suggesting that Copan controlled Quirigua as a way station with Tikal. Pages 34-35 explain that Quirigua’s inhabitants experienced a gap in historical records from around 541 A.D. , and lasting about a century. Pages 36-37 explain that K’ak’ Tiliw Chan Yo’pat (also called “Cauac Sky”) established a relationship with Calakmul prior to going to war with Copan’s ruler 18 Rabbit. And page 38 explains how the Mayans finally abandoned Quirigua around 900 A.D.
Click on the link below to see my Quirigua photos. And for more photos of Quirigua, please see the following websites:
http://mayaruins.com/quirigua.html
http://www90.homepage.villanova.edu/lowell.gustafson/Maya/quirigua.html
