Palenque Ruins

The experience of touring Palenque is best understood by pretending you are on a solitary walk through the rainforest. The real archaeological grounds are crowded, but imagine you have been walking for hours or days without encountering anyone. A hush has fallen over the canopy following a recent storm, and there is no sign of any animated creatures, not even the chattering monkeys you were told to expect; and it is only when you stop for a few minutes that you notice a few tiny birds in strange colors. And then all of a sudden, you happen upon a clearing and find this:

Palenque was built exactly where the northern plain first slopes up into low foothills. The ancient Mayans called the place Lakam Ha, or "big water," after the streams that sparkle above limestone deposits and rush down to the valley. The pyramids, built out of the limestone, stand against the hillsides so they have the appearance of gateways into mountain caves.

The site is not particularly large compared to some of the other Mayan cities, but even so, only a fraction of it has been excavated for tourists. The area on display mainly encompasses the palace and major temples built around what is now an open plaza with a cultivated lawn. You can walk into the woods and watch the streams unfold into a series of waterfalls (unphotographed because of the rain) and find smaller, overgrown structures that served as residences or sanctuaries. An aqueduct provided drinking water.

The city was the royal seat of a kingdom called B’aakal, for "bone." Many of the buildings date from the time of its most famous king, K’inich Janaab’ Pakal. He first assumed the throne as a 12-year- old boy in A.D. 615 and died in the year 683. He was buried in the Temple of the Inscriptions, completed by his son. The stone slab over his sarcophagus depicts him beneath a cross-shaped emblem called the World Tree, a ceiba that stretches from the underworld to the sky. My assumption is that this temple, like all of the religious buildings, was originally painted in red.

The palace, expanded under Pakal, is covered over with pictures of its resident kings. After the Mayan cities collapsed in the ninth century, squatters and nomads continued to live there.

The Mayans did write books, using paper made out of fig tree bark, but only four of them survive. We can still read the historical inscriptions carved into stone, but they give us what is probably a distorted view that the Mayans were preoccupied with dynastic successions to the exclusion of other areas of life.

Pakal’s son, K’inich Kan B’Alam II, built three temples, known as the group of the cross. Each of them is devoted to one of the three principal gods associated with Palenque. One of them, the Temple of the Foliated Cross, is a symbol of agriculture and the earth. The temple is situated so that light enters the sanctuary at sunset on the summer solstice. A wall tablet shows the king facing a version of himself as a child, with both of them standing in front of an ear of corn drawn to resemble the World Tree. The building facing opposite is the Temple of the Sun, which is oriented toward the emergence of dawn in winter. It is linked to a god called "Shield of the Lord of the Solar Face," who represents the journey of the sun across the underworld at night.

Between them is the tallest of the three, the Temple of the Cross, which is devoted to the celestial realm.This is the view from the top:

As a visitor, you are left with the sense that you will never know what really happened here.

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Comments

[Brian]

First time reader, first time commenter.

Great pictures! I can't wait to read more about your trip.

[Brian]

First time reader, first time commenter.

Great pictures! I can't wait to read more about your trip.

[Avery Palmer]

Thanks! I created the index to the left that makes it easy to navigate, I hope.

[nub]

These pictures in particular have a certain quality to them that is... comforting. You used a film camera I presume? The top one I think would make a good enlargement.

[Avery Palmer]

These are from a disposable film camera. I didn't want to use my digital camera in the rain. Some of them I've cropped liberally, such as the top one.