Gateway to Copán — Honduras's industrial capital and the transport hub for the country's most visited archaeological site: the Maya city of Copán, where Altar Q records 16 Copán kings and the Great Hieroglyphic Stairway holds the longest Maya inscription ever found
San Pedro Sula is Honduras's second city and its commercial and industrial capital — a hot, flat city in the Sula Valley that serves as the transit hub for western Honduras. For most travellers, San Pedro Sula is a gateway rather than a destination: the city's international airport is Honduras's busiest and serves as the jumping-off point for Copán Ruinas (150 km west), the most significant Maya archaeological site in Honduras and one of the most important in the entire Maya world. The Copán archaeological site features Altar Q (a carved stone throne listing 16 successive Copán rulers, consid…
The Valle de Sula was inhabited by the Lenca and Maya peoples before Spanish colonisation — the Copán valley (a separate but nearby region) was one of the most important centres of Classic Maya civilisation from 200–900 CE. San Pedro Sula itself was founded as a Spanish colonial town in 1536 by Pedro de Alvarado, shortly after the Spanish conquest of Honduras. Named for Saint Peter the Apostle and the Sula Valley, the city grew slowly as a cattle-ranching and agricultural centre. San Pedro Sula's transformation into an industrial city began in the late 19th century with the arrival of the ban…