Maya Palenque is among the Majestic Mayan Ruins

Located in southern Mexico, Maya Palenque was a Maya city state that witnessed its boom in the 7th century CE and the same was immersed into a forest on decline. Today, it has been unearthed and is a popular archaeological site near the Usumacinta River in the Mexican state of Chiapas at the height of 150 m. Much of the ancient Palenque has been restored by obtaining much information from its symbolic inscriptions on several monuments. Not only in reconstruction, but the inscriptions have told the stories of the Maya settlement who have resided since centuries here to the historians.

Attracting thousands of visitors, Palenque is not that huge in size, but boasts a few exemplary art pieces of the superb architecture, sculpture, roof comb and bas-relief carvings of the Maya community.

Important Monuments

The Palace

In Maya Palenque, this is actually a compound of a myriad of linked buildings and courtyards that took several generations to build. It is the home of several superb sculptures, bas-relief carvings, and the unique four-storey tower.

Temple of the Inscriptions

This super monument, a funerary tombstone of Hanab-Pakal, holds the second longest glyphic text of the Maya world. It tells the story of 180 years of the city’s past from the 4th to the 12th K’atun. The records that tell this story emphasize on the city’s patron deities together called the Palenque Triad or independently as GI, GII, and GIII. The Pyramid here is crowned with the Summit temple with some of the largest stones.

Here, a passageway in the floor of the back room of the temple is a long stairway taking you to the Pakal’s tomb who was the famous Mayan ruler. This tomb is worth a visit due to its giant sarcophagus, the luxurious jewelry, and the stucco art on the walls. From the tomb, a distinctive psychoduct symbolizes the leaving of the soul at death according to the Mayan understanding marked by the phrase ochb’ihaj sak ik’il (the white road-entered) in the inscriptions. The icon of the sarcophagus top represents Pakal to be one of the incarnations of the Maya Maize God rising from the underworld.

Temples of the Cross Group

These include some of the most elegant structures on the step pyramids – the Temple of the Cross, Temple of the Sun, and Temple of the Foliated Cross. Each one of them holds an ornately carved relief in the inner section signifying two icons of ritual items and carvings. The middle tablet shows two pictures of Kan B’ahlam – the smaller depicts K’inich Kan B’ahlam during a passage ritual when 6 years old, while the larger shows his kingship at 48.

The Aqueduct

Built with grand stone blocks, this marvel holds a 3 m vault so that the Otulum River could pass underneath the main plaza of Maya Palenque.

The Temple of the Lion

Located at a distance of 200 m south of the main temples, this temple is so named because of the ornate bas-relief carving of a king seated on a throne seeming like a jaguar.

Maya Palenque, even today, is the most frequently visited site that stirs much fondness among the tourists as compared with any Mesoamerican ruin.