Hieroglyphic Stairway
E178563
The Hieroglyphic Stairway is a monumental carved staircase at the Maya site of Copán in Honduras, famed for its extensive hieroglyphic inscriptions that record the dynasty’s history.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Hieroglyphic Stairway canonical | 2 |
| Hieroglyphic Stairway of Temple 26 | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1577371 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Hieroglyphic Stairway Context triple: [Copán, knownFor, Hieroglyphic Stairway]
-
A.
Dream Stele of Thutmose IV
The Dream Stele of Thutmose IV is an ancient Egyptian inscribed stone slab commemorating a dream in which the future pharaoh was promised kingship by the sun god if he cleared the sand from the Great Sphinx of Giza.
-
B.
Narmer Macehead
The Narmer Macehead is an ancient ceremonial stone macehead from early dynastic Egypt, notable for its carved scenes that likely commemorate King Narmer’s royal ceremonies or military victories and provide key evidence for the formation of the Egyptian state.
-
C.
The Pyramid
The Pyramid is the popular nickname for the Transamerica Pyramid, a distinctive, pyramid-shaped skyscraper and iconic feature of the San Francisco skyline.
-
D.
The Pyramid
The Pyramid is a massive pyramid-shaped arena and entertainment complex in Memphis, Tennessee, known for its distinctive architecture and current use as a Bass Pro Shops megastore and tourist attraction.
-
E.
Lahun Pyramid
The Lahun Pyramid is a Middle Kingdom Egyptian pyramid built by Pharaoh Senusret II, notable for its mudbrick core, complex substructure, and association with the nearby workers’ town at el-Lahun.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Hieroglyphic Stairway Target entity description: The Hieroglyphic Stairway is a monumental carved staircase at the Maya site of Copán in Honduras, famed for its extensive hieroglyphic inscriptions that record the dynasty’s history.
-
A.
Dream Stele of Thutmose IV
The Dream Stele of Thutmose IV is an ancient Egyptian inscribed stone slab commemorating a dream in which the future pharaoh was promised kingship by the sun god if he cleared the sand from the Great Sphinx of Giza.
-
B.
Narmer Macehead
The Narmer Macehead is an ancient ceremonial stone macehead from early dynastic Egypt, notable for its carved scenes that likely commemorate King Narmer’s royal ceremonies or military victories and provide key evidence for the formation of the Egyptian state.
-
C.
The Pyramid
The Pyramid is a massive pyramid-shaped arena and entertainment complex in Memphis, Tennessee, known for its distinctive architecture and current use as a Bass Pro Shops megastore and tourist attraction.
-
D.
The Pyramid
The Pyramid is the popular nickname for the Transamerica Pyramid, a distinctive, pyramid-shaped skyscraper and iconic feature of the San Francisco skyline.
-
E.
Lahun Pyramid
The Lahun Pyramid is a Middle Kingdom Egyptian pyramid built by Pharaoh Senusret II, notable for its mudbrick core, complex substructure, and association with the nearby workers’ town at el-Lahun.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Maya monument
ⓘ
archaeological structure ⓘ hieroglyphic inscription ⓘ |
| approximateConstructionCentury | 8th century ⓘ |
| artStyle | Classic Maya sculpture ⓘ |
| associatedRuler |
Kʼakʼ Yipyaj Chan Kʼawiil
ⓘ
Uaxaclajuun Ubʼaah Kʼawiil ⓘ |
| civilization | Classic Maya ⓘ |
| conservationStatus | partially restored ⓘ |
| country | Honduras ⓘ |
| culture | Maya civilization ⓘ |
| dedicatedTo | Copán dynasty ⓘ |
| discoveredBy | 19th-century explorers ⓘ |
| function |
dynastic record
ⓘ
monumental staircase ⓘ |
| hasFeature |
carved risers with hieroglyphic texts
ⓘ
reconstructed glyph blocks ⓘ sculpted seated figures on steps ⓘ |
| heritageStatus | part of UNESCO World Heritage Site "Maya Site of Copán" ⓘ |
| inscriptionType | historical inscription ⓘ |
| language |
Classical Maya language
ⓘ
surface form:
Classic Maya language
|
| locatedIn |
Copán
ⓘ
Copán ⓘ
surface form:
Copán Archaeological Site
Copán Department ⓘ Honduras ⓘ Mesoamerica ⓘ |
| managedBy | Instituto Hondureño de Antropología e Historia ⓘ |
| material | stone ⓘ |
| near |
Copán
ⓘ
surface form:
Copán Ruinas
|
| numberOfGlyphBlocks | over 2200 ⓘ |
| numberOfSteps | approximately 63 ⓘ |
| orientation | part of eastern side of Temple 26 ⓘ |
| partOf |
Copán
ⓘ
surface form:
Acropolis of Copán
Temple 26 ⓘ |
| period | Classic period ⓘ |
| records |
accession of Copán rulers
ⓘ
history of the Copán dynasty ⓘ ritual events at Copán ⓘ |
| region | western Honduras ⓘ |
| significance |
key source for Copán political history
ⓘ
one of the longest known Maya hieroglyphic texts ⓘ |
| subjectOf | epigraphic studies of Maya writing ⓘ |
| theme |
ritual and dedication ceremonies
ⓘ
royal genealogy ⓘ warfare and alliances ⓘ |
| touristAttraction | yes ⓘ |
| UNESCOWorldHeritageSiteSince | 1980 ⓘ |
| writingSystem | Maya hieroglyphs ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Hieroglyphic Stairway Description of subject: The Hieroglyphic Stairway is a monumental carved staircase at the Maya site of Copán in Honduras, famed for its extensive hieroglyphic inscriptions that record the dynasty’s history.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Hieroglyphic Stairway of Temple 26