Palenque: Home of the Mayans

As published by JPlus by The Jakarta Post, 17 September 2016

the ruins inside the forest

In the middle of the Lacandon Rainforest rests the ruins of one of the most important Mayan cities, Palenque, which is currently the most visited tourist destination in Chiapas.

Time and nature consumed the site with greenery and soil until it was rediscovered in 1746. Since then, historians and archaeologists have come to Palenque to learn more about the political, commercial and cultural history of the city and to unearth the estimated 98 percent of Palanque that
remains buried.

People climbing Script Temple

The city, inhabited from 100 BCE to 900 CE, more or less, was estimated to have more than 1,400 building at its peak.

The two percent of it currently unearthed spans 7.81 square kilometers. It took me two hours to wander up and down its hills, climbing the only three edifices open at this UNESCO World Heritage
Site.

Due to its international fame, Palenque has a host of English-speaking tour guides, as well as those facile in French, German, Italian and Japanese.

Palenque’s long-standing king, Pakal the Great, ruled for 68 years and built much of the city.

One of its most conspicuous edifices is the Script Temple, so-called because of its inscriptions, written in a script devised by Pakal, which helped contemporary researchers understand Mayan history.

The temple is also home to Pakal’s tomb, closed when I visited, which is said to be decorated by
reliefs of skulls.

The tower in the palace

The next pyramid, the Tomb of the Red Queen, takes its name from the woman whose red-shrouded body is interred inside.

Passing a field where the Mayans once played one of the precursor sports to baseball, I reached palace comprising a tower, an underground gallery, latrines, steam baths, an open-air meeting place and four courtyards.

One of the yards, the Captive Courtyard, depicted the martial exploits of Palenque with sculptures of the defeated warriors of other cities.

I continued my journey walking along an aqueduct and then climbing up a hill to get to the Complex of the Cross. For the Mayans, this was a sacred place for worshipping their deities and ancestors.

I climbed the highest pyramid, the Temple of the Cross, and viewed the entire excavated site of Palanque amid the foliage of the jungle.

In the late afternoon sun and cold breeze, I came down from the pyramid. It was time to say goodbye to the home of the Mayans.