In Honduras, tourists pay big money to see Mayan ruins – even in places where Mayans never lived:
As ancient civilizations go, the Maya is one of the most bankable – a fact not lost on the [Honduras] Ministry of Tourism. It began aggressively promoting the country’s Maya past, most notably Copán, a ruined city in the far west of the country, close to its border with Guatemala. Now a World Heritage site, Copán was the centre of a Maya kingdom for about 400 years until it was abandoned around AD 900. … It is a spectacular site, but hardly representative of Honduras’s past. Copán was an outpost; most of modern Honduras was never Maya territory and the Maya impact on the country’s history is very limited.
The most ostentatious example of this ersatz history is Maya Key, a private island a few minutes by boat from Roatán Town.
Cruise ships plying the Caribbean often dock there so that passengers can visit. Its principal attraction is a full-scale replica of parts of [World Heritage site] Copán. The “ruins” are not passed off as real but [researchers] are concerned that visitors will conclude Maya Key is a genuine part of Roatán’s history – a misconception that the tourist industry appears in little hurry to correct. As the voiceover of a promotional video made by Norwegian Cruise Line [seen above] says: “What people will remember about Maya Key is Mayan ruins – past culture and history of Mayan civilization, what you can learn about the history of Honduras back 1000 years ago.”
Copán – the genuine article, that is – was once the last stop on a tour of Maya sites known as Mundo Maya. Now the final destination is often Maya Key. Ironically, the owners of Maya Key also own the small Roatán Museum on the other side of the island, which houses artifacts telling the true history of the island. But the cruise ships don’t deliver their passengers there, and the entry fee – just $1 compared with $30 for Maya Key – tells you everything you need to know about its relative attractiveness to tourists.
The Dish 