The Maya city of Copán
Copán, in western Honduras, was one of the great cities of the ancient Maya. It was abandoned in the early 10th century.[2] Diego García de Palacio described its ruins in 1570, but excavations only began in the 1800s.[2]
Copán is famous for its art. Its Hieroglyphic Stairway has more than 1,800 glyphs, the Maya writing signs, and UNESCO calls it the longest known Maya inscription.[2] The tall carved stone monuments called stelae and the altars in its main plaza are considered among the finest sculptures in the region.[2]
The Maya Site of Copán is a UNESCO World Heritage site.[2] Its writing and sculptures help scholars read the history of Copán’s rulers and understand Maya science and beliefs.
Rainforest: the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve
In northeastern Honduras, the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve protects one of the few large tropical rainforests left in Central America.[3] It covers the whole watershed of the Río Plátano, from the mountains to the Caribbean coast, about 350,000 hectares, Honduras’s largest protected area.[3]
Together with the Bosawas reserve in Nicaragua, it forms the largest continuous forest in Latin America north of the Amazon.[3] The reserve has more than 700 kinds of vertebrate animals, including about 411 kinds of birds.[3] Jaguars, Central American tapirs and spider monkeys live there.[3]
More than 2,000 Indigenous people, including the Pech, Tawahka and Miskito, as well as Garifuna communities, keep their traditional ways of life in the reserve.[3] It is a UNESCO World Heritage site.[3]
In the west, Honduras shares the Trifinio Fraternidad Biosphere Reserve with Guatemala and El Salvador.[7] This reserve of about 278,750 hectares protects cloud forest, dry forest, pine and oak forest and wetlands, and it is the source of Central America’s three largest rivers.[7] Ocelots, Baird’s tapirs and Geoffroy’s spider monkeys live there, and more than 260,000 people live in and around the reserve.[7] The three countries work together to care for it.[7]
The Garifuna
The Garifuna are a people of mixed Indigenous Caribbean and African heritage. They settled on the Atlantic coast of Central America in the 1700s, after being forced to leave the island of Saint Vincent.[4] Today most Garifuna communities live in Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Belize.[4]
The Garifuna language belongs to the Arawakan family of languages.[4] Garifuna music, with its drums and songs, and its dances are an important part of community life. In 2008 UNESCO inscribed the language, dance and music of the Garifuna on its list of intangible cultural heritage.[4]
Many Garifuna families also live in the United States, especially in New York, where they keep their language and traditions alive.
Food: cassava bread and more
Cassava bread is an important food for Garifuna and other communities in Honduras. UNESCO lists the knowledge and practices for making and eating cassava bread as shared heritage of Honduras, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Venezuela.[5]
People peel, wash and grate the cassava root, dry the pulp, sift the flour and cook the dough on hot plates, usually over a wood fire.[5] UNESCO explains that the bread connects these communities with their Indigenous and African heritage.[5]
Other well-known Honduran foods include baleadas, flour tortillas folded around beans, cream and cheese, and dishes made with coconut on the Caribbean coast. Corn, beans and rice are everyday foods across the country.
People and language
About 11 million people live in Honduras.[1] Spanish is the main language. Indigenous peoples such as the Lenca, the Ch’orti’ Maya and the Miskito, Pech and Tawahka of the northeast,[3] as well as the Garifuna of the Caribbean coast,[4] are part of the country’s culture.
Tegucigalpa, in the mountains, is the capital. Honduras’s money, the lempira, is named after a Lenca leader who resisted the Spanish in the 1500s.
The Bay Islands, off the Caribbean coast, are known for coral reefs. Honduras has UNESCO World Heritage sites for both culture and nature.[2][3][6] Students can compare Honduras with its neighbors, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua, on our North America page.
Free printable: map of North America (PDF)
Questions people ask
What is Honduras famous for?
Honduras is famous for the Maya city of Copán, the Río Plátano rainforest, the Garifuna culture and its Caribbean coast.[2][3][4]
What language do they speak in Honduras?
People in Honduras speak Spanish. Garifuna and Indigenous languages are spoken in some communities.[4]
What is special about Copán?
Its Hieroglyphic Stairway has more than 1,800 glyphs, the longest known Maya inscription.[2]
Who are the Garifuna?
A people of mixed Indigenous Caribbean and African heritage who live on the Caribbean coast of Central America.[4]
What animals live in the Río Plátano reserve?
Jaguars, Central American tapirs, spider monkeys and about 411 kinds of birds.[3]
Sources
- World Bank Open Data: Honduras · data.worldbank.org/country/honduras (accessed 2026-10-30)
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Maya Site of Copan · whc.unesco.org/en/list/129 (accessed 2026-10-30)
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve · whc.unesco.org/en/list/196 (accessed 2026-10-30)
- UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage: Language, dance and music of the Garifuna · ich.unesco.org/en/RL/language-dance-and-music-of-the-garifuna-00001 (accessed 2026-10-30)
- UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage: Traditional knowledge and practices for the making and consumption of cassava bread · ich.unesco.org/en/RL/traditional-knowledge-and-practices-for-the-making-and-consumption-of-cassava-bread-02118 (accessed 2026-10-30)
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Honduras (State Party page) · whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/hn (accessed 2026-10-30)
- UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme: Trifinio Fraternidad Biosphere Reserve · www.unesco.org/en/mab/trifinio-fraternidad-1 (accessed 2026-10-30)
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