Waxaklajuun Ubaah K'awiil Rebuilds Copan's Great Plaza

What happened

Uaxaclajuun Ub'aah K'awiil, whose name translates roughly as 'Eighteen are the Faces of K'awiil' and who is often called 18 Rabbit in English, ruled Copan as its thirteenth king from 2 January 695 CE until his death on 3 May 738 CE. He commissioned an unmatched sequence of monuments in Copan's Great Plaza, seven major stelae designated C, F, 4, H, A, B, and D, each portraying him in a different divine role, as the Maize God, a warrior, and an embodiment of the planet Venus among others, in a deep, florid relief style that scholars consider the high point of Copan's sculptural tradition. His reign ended abruptly when K'ak' Tiliw Chan Yopaat, ruler of the smaller nearby city of Quirigua, previously a subordinate polity, captured and beheaded him on 3 May 738 CE. No new major monuments were erected at Copan for 18 years afterward.

How we know

His reign dates, monuments, and death are recorded through Long Count dates on Copan's own stelae and on monuments at Quirigua describing his capture and execution, cross-checked against the archaeological hiatus in new construction at Copan following 738 CE.

Sources

• Copan Altar Q Network of Narratives and Depictions of Kings. Uaxaclajuun Ub'aah K'awiil · General sourceahutnick.github.io · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
• UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Maya Site of Copan · Reputable sourcewhc.unesco.org · The domain "whc.unesco.org" is on our Reputable source registry.