Qualla: Quirigua https://qualla.com/quirigua en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:12 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/4/8/w/quirigua-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Quirigua https://qualla.com/quirigua Quirigua: Introduction https://qualla.com/quirigua/ Photo credit Stuardo Herrera from Guatemala, Guatemala, CC BY 2.0. On May 3, 738 AD, a king lost his head -- literally. Uaxaclajuun Ub'aah K'awiil, known to scholars as "18-Rabbit" and widely considered the greatest ruler Copan ever produced, was decapitated in a public ritual at Quirigua's Great Plaza. The man who ordered the execution was K'ak' Tiliw Chan Yopaat, a vassal king whom 18-Rabbit had personally installed on Quirigua's throne just fourteen years earlier. It was, by any measure, an extraordinary act of betrayal. And it transformed a minor trading outpost along the Motagua River into one of the most artistically ambitious cities in the Maya world.

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Image: Stuardo Herrera from Guatemala, Guatemala | CC BY 2.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/4/8/w/quirigua-wp/d48w-quirigua-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Quirigua: A Vassal's Gambit https://qualla.com/quirigua/ Photo credit xorge, CC BY-SA 2.0. Quirigua had been founded around 426 AD as a satellite of Copan, itself an outpost of the great city of Tikal. For three centuries it served obediently, paying tribute in maize and cacao, hosting rituals supervised by Copan's kings. The site's strategic value lay in its position ...

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Image: xorge | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/4/8/w/quirigua-wp/d48w-quirigua-a-vassals-gambit.mp3 0:06 2 full Quirigua: Stones That Shout https://qualla.com/quirigua/ Photo credit Stuardo Herrera from Guatemala, Guatemala, CC BY 2.0. With Copan's king dead and its power broken, K'ak' Tiliw Chan Yopaat embarked on a building program that would define Quirigua for posterity. He erected massive stelae carved from single blocks of red sandstone quarried five kilometers away, each one an elaborate statement of roy...

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Image: Stuardo Herrera from Guatemala, Guatemala | CC BY 2.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/4/8/w/quirigua-wp/d48w-quirigua-stones-that-shout.mp3 0:06 3 full Quirigua: Silence on the Motagua https://qualla.com/quirigua/ Photo credit Diego Tirira from Quito, Ecuador, CC BY-SA 2.0. Quirigua's glory was brief. The city never grew large -- its peak population probably never exceeded 2,000 people, scattered across the valley floor at a low density of about 130 structures per square kilometer. The last hieroglyphic texts were raised in 810. After that, Quirigua...

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Image: Diego Tirira from Quito, Ecuador | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/4/8/w/quirigua-wp/d48w-quirigua-silence-on-the-motagua.mp3 0:06 4 full Quirigua: Rediscovery Among the Banana Groves https://qualla.com/quirigua/ Photo credit Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0. English artist Frederick Catherwood reached Quirigua in 1840, making it the first site he and explorer John Lloyd Stephens could claim to have discovered themselves. Catherwood's drawings of two stelae, published in Stephens's 1841 book Incidents of Travel in Central America, int...

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Image: Dennis G. Jarvis | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/4/8/w/quirigua-wp/d48w-quirigua-rediscovery-among-the-banana-groves.mp3 0:06 5 full