The Ruins of Mexico: Virtual Tour Website
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The trail to Palenque is well worn. The neighbouring town of Palenque is accessible from any of the major cities of Chiapas, and the ruins are a bus ride away. A museum near the site entrance is worth a visit. Take bug spray and precautions against the sun. Culture: Classic Maya
The origins of one of the mightiest cities of the Classic Mayan age was as a farming hamlet around the beginning of the Early Classic era. Over the next two hundred years it developed its trading links with other cities of the region, but by the turn of the seventh century AD began to grow into one of the most important. It was in the 600s in particular where we look to Palenque's heyday. The most famous and impressive structures were all built then and its unique style of art came into fruition. We can see similarities in architecture with other important centres like Yaxchilan and Bonampak. For the first quarter of that century Palenque was ruled by Pakal the Great, perhaps its most influential monarch, whose monumental Temple of the Inscriptions was a self-commissioned tomb; the greatest of its kind in Mesoamerica. But this prosperity was not unaccompanied by political tension; both external and probably so too internal. Catalogued by the stone calendars at Palenque are a series of wars between the chief power centres of the region, most notably that of Calakmul. While Palenque's territorial influence expanded into the 700s to include much of the modern-day states of Chiapas and Tabasco, it was set into something of a cultural decline. The great building projects ended and the recorded history became erratic and incomplete. Around the turn of the ninth century there was something of a short-lived revival; the last recorded king's reign was marked to 799. Soon after, all ceremonial life was halted and for largely unknown reasons a process of abandonment began until by 900, the forest was allowed free-reign. It was not parted again until the early explorations of the colonial explorers almost a thousand years later. For more about other Cities of the Classic Maya, see Cultural History. Tour. (Scroll down to follow complete tour, or click on feature below and use your BACK key to return to map) The monuments of Palenque are large, but although the area of the whole city was once vast, the visitable zone is not and the grass is kept well down, so it makes easy touring.
As we move through the entrance, as people over a thousand years would have done, we enter the Main Plaza, which is where the most important buildings are located. On our right is a long, built up structure that supports three temples.
The first is known as the Temple of the Skull, because of a skeletal rabbit mask found inside. The roofed temple contains the remains of two corridors. Next along is the less well-preserved Temple XIII whose walls alone remain. But our eyes have already been drawn to the massive structure that lays at the end of the row of buildings and which dominates the scene. This is the famous Temple of the Inscriptions, perhaps the most important edifice at Palenque.
The building atop the nine pyramidal tiers (giving a total height of 61 metres) has five doorways which give access to an interior obviously once of the utmost ceremonial importance. Inside there are panels of inscriptions (hence the temple's name) giving the dynastic history of Pakal, the great ruler who constructed this building in his lifetime as a memorial to himself. Uniquely, a stair-way descends down into the body of the temple itself and arrives at a crypt, where lay the body of Pakal, under a fantastic sarcophagus stone, that still remains and whose design is to be found on many T-shirts sold in this country. Unfortunately, at the time of visiting, access to the Temple of the Inscriptions was prohibited due to restoration work. Leaving this glorified tomb, we will now cross the Main Plaza to its north side, leaving for the moment the huge shape of the Palace to our right. To our left, we see the large but completely unexcavated mound of Temple XI, which would have been one of the largest monuments on view. We come to a very low, stepped structure known as Building X. It is actually one of the earliest constructions here but has lacked any excavation work and is in poor condition. Building X Behind Building X at the northwest corner of the city stands the Temple of the Count. This is a moderately sized covered temple, which apparently is almost wholly original, resting upon a five-tiered base. It was named after one Count Waldeck, an eccentric European explorer, who apparently lodged here. The Temple of the Count From here, the row of buildings lining the northern edge of Palenque can be easily gained. These are known collectively as the North Cluster. They are to be found on a long, stepped platform, similar in concept to the one including the Temple of the Inscriptions. There are five separate buildings, with three being larger than the other two and consisting of long covered corridor-like chambers. The remains of columned-entrances are to be found on two of the buildings. Although seemingly forming one unit, the temples were apparently built at different periods.
We will now make our way back towards the heart of Palenque in the obvious direction of the Palace. En route, we will come across Palenque's ball court. This is one of the smaller such examples to be found in Mexico. Apart from building fantastic monuments, the rulers could not have been too obsessed with the ball game as some of their contemporaries had been. Ball Court The Palace is what in many ways makes Palenque Palenque. No other structure in Mexico is so complicated in concept and realisation, nor possesses so many different architectural elements. More amazingly is the fact that it was not built as one unit but was added to over successive generations of rulers. A separate chapter may be written about this one building and more time will be spent examining this feature than any other at the city. It consists of a raised platform with entrances on all sides that opens into four main central courtyards. There is a wide variety of reliefs and pictorial evidence relating to the dynastic history of Palenque. It is thought that the purpose of the building was to house the elite and to serve as the main ritual area.
The prominent four-storey Tower stands at the centre of the complex and was constructed in 780 (according to an inscribed tablet) towards the end of the city's life. It is now generally believed that it had some astronomical significance and could have been an observatory. The Tower Also to be found are stairways leading down into intriguing catacombs that once formed the first stage in the Palace's construction.
We are now ready to explore the last main excavated area of the city: the Cross Group. This is to be found on a higher level forged into the side of the hill to the east and the four main buildings there were funerary monuments to Kan-Bahlam, one of the most powerful rulers of Palenque.
The Cross Group We reach the Plaza of the Cross from the southeast corner of the Palace. After crossing the now usually dried bed of the River Otulum (once the main source of water for the city), we ascend on to higher ground and pass, first of all, Temple XIV.
This is the smallest and least well preserved structure of the group and consists of a stepped building with ruined walls housing an inscribed stone of the son of Kan-Bahlam, who lived at the turn of the eighth century. Immediately next to Temple XIV we find the Temple of the Sun, so named because of an interior tablet with a sun-like face, although this was actually a representation of the god GIII. This structure is a much better specimen; it is the best preserved of the group and Mayan historian Michael Coe considered it "the most perfect of all Mayan buildings". It contains the classic Mayan architectural elements: the divided inner and outer chambers and a well-preserved roof comb. This is a purely ornamental feature that has survived in few other buildings. The Temple of the Sun Across the other side of the plaza, nestled into the side of the hill, can be found the Temple of the Foliated, or Leafy, Cross. The front half of the building was completely destroyed, so we have here a surgical dissection of a Mayan temple. It contains a tablet showing a large cross sprouting leaves with a ruler accession scene surrounding. This cross, the Mayan World Tree, was once mistakenly taken as evidence of the practice of Christianity in ancient Palenque.
To the north, stands the Temple of the Cross upon a massive pyramidal, stepped base. It offers the highest vantage point of any other building here and so is worth the climb if just for the panorama. Inside, within the interior chamber of similar proportions to the two previously examined structures, is another inscribed tablet with another Mayan tree image, the "cross" of the temple's name. Also, we can see on the left door pillar, an image of Kan-Bahlam himself. Opposite him is the famous engraving of the aged, smoking God L. The building also retains much of its original roof comb. The Temple of the Cross We have now explored the accessible, restored portion of Palenque, but if we venture into the trees to the south of the Plaza of the Cross, we stumble across overgrown ruins of a cluster of small buildings belonging to Group E. This site is in the process of restoration.
Down across the river and up the other side will be encountered the House of the Lion, or the Temple of the Beautiful Relief. Unfortunately, the beautiful relief, which displayed a ruler surrounded by cat-like gods, no longer exists, but the structure still retains its walls, roof and a lower, crypt-like chamber. The rest of Palenque lies scattered amongst the jungle to the south and only a professional guide could show the unexcavated ruins therein. Let us hope that one day, more of this amazing city will be revealed and restored for viewing. |
The Temple of the Inscriptions
North Cluster
Catacombs beneath the Palace
Temple XIV
The Temple of the Foliated Cross
Structure
in Group E