Detail of the broad steps giving access to the Building of Five Stories. One can clearly make out the glyphs carved on the risers. So-called hieroglyphic stairways were very common throughout the Maya area. The best-known example is the monumental Hieroglyphic Stairway at Copan, but smaller examples of this kind of use of steps can be found all over the Maya area. Most known examples of hieroglyphic steps deal with historical events, such as dynastic histories, wars, conquests and accessions to power. The events the hieroglyphic stairway of Edzna talks about appear to have occurred during the seventh century A.D.