Wondering at the Impressive Palenque of Maya

Palenque was a great Maya city whose architecture and grandeur is easily comparable with that of other Maya ruins of Chichen Itza and Uxmal. My trip was for full two days including the round trip out of which I spent one full day to explore the city in ruins. I started with my friends from Akumal that took some 7.5 hours to reach this archeological site at the Tumbala Mountains in the Chiapas state of southern Mexico.

Standing near the Usumacinta River, this Maya city flourished in the 7th century CE and now much of its details are revealed from its symbolic inscriptions. This has helped in restoring much of the ancient Palenque that draws thousands of tourists each year. Though not so big and vast, the ruined city even today retains some of the most magnificent art, architecture, roof comb, and bas-relief carvings.

The shade-providing jungle, landscaped courts, and jungle trails make it quite easy to spend hours here and access courts and temples. Further, there is an atmosphere of peace that wraps you each second when you stroll around each structure in its wonderful backdrop with high trees.

Palenque Tourism

Much is yet to be known about the city despite many inscriptions tell its story. What I want to say is that this place is a must see site whenever you visit Mexico.

First, I visited the Palace. Being a compound of many buildings connected to each other and courtyards, this structure holds a myriad of fine sculptures, bas-relief carvings, and a tower of four storeys. Next, the Temple of the Inscriptions is the famous pyramidal structure here, which contains the grave of Hanab-Pakal who was the mightiest ruler and the second longest glyphic text of the Maya civilization. This text narrates the chronicles of the Maya history of 180 years in the city in which the focus is on the patron deities called the Palenque Triad or GI, GII, and GIII.

Atop the pyramid, the Summit temple holding a few of the largest stones is seen from where a long stairway descends from the floor of the temple’s rear room to the Pakal’s tomb. The dampness down is much high and the walls seems to moan for this great ruler. Remember, you need to take special permission to visit this part of the temple. The tomb is the home of a huge sarcophagus, rich jewelry, and the stucco art exhibited by the walls. The icon atop the sarcophagus symbolizes Pakal as an incarnation of the Maya Maize God emerging from the underworld.

Here, you can also see a unique psychoduct that indicates the departure of the soul after death with the written phrase as ochb’ihaj sak ik’il meaning the white road entered.

Temples of the Cross Group

This is the home of quite graceful step pyramids namely, the Temple of the Cross, Temple of the Sun, and Temple of the Foliated Cross. If you visit each of them, you will come across an elaborately carved relief in the interior representing two icons of rites and carvings. Further, two images of the ruler Kan B’ahlam on the middle tablet are seen. Out of these, the small one shows a passage ritual when he was 6, while the large one depicts his kingship when he was 48.

The Aqueduct

This building is made up of grand stone blocks and holds a vault to fetch the waters of the Otulum River.

The Temple of the Lion

This is some distance away to the south of the central temples. It holds an elaborate bas-relief of a king on a throne that appears to be a jaguar and from this it is named as the Temple of the Lion.