Some two or three miles from the ruins are the quarries, from which the
stones for the buildings and statues of Copan are evidently taken. Here
still exist huge blocks of stone, in different degrees of preparation.
Near a river was found a gigantic block, much larger than any in the
city, which was probably on its way thither, to be carved and set up,
when the labours of the workmen were arrested. It is difficult to
conjecture how these vast masses were transported over the irregular and
broken surface of the country, and particularly how one of them was set
up on the top of a mountain two thousand feet in height.
A place of this name was captured by Hernandes de Chaves at the time
when its now broken monuments, ruined terraces, walls, and sculptured
figures, were entire, and were all richly painted; and it seems strange
that Europeans could have beheld its wonders without spreading the
report of them throughout the civilised world, yet no account of this
strange city was extant till it was visited by Mr Stevens.