Palenque

Palenque is the most beautiful and atmospheric of all the ancient Maya cities, its elegant temples and sprawling palace rising from dense green rainforest alive with howler monkeys and birdsong in the state of Chiapas. Renowned for the refinement of its architecture and carvings, it is famous above all for the Temple of the Inscriptions, beneath which was found the magnificent tomb of the great seventh-century king Pakal.

History

The ruins date from about 226 BC to about 799 AD, and the first king of Bʼaakal known by name, Kʼuk Balam, came to power in 431. The famous buildings seen today probably belong to the rebuilding that followed attacks by Calakmul and its allies in 599 and 611, led above all by Kʼinich Janaabʼ Pakal, who ruled from 615 to 683 and whose funerary monument is the Temple of the Inscriptions; his son Kan Bahlam II and grandson Akal Moʼ Naab continued the city's great run of inscriptions. In the 8th century, like most Classic Maya city-states, Palenque came under growing stress, no new elite building went up in the centre after about 800, and the farmers who stayed on for a few generations eventually left the site to the forest. After a brief account by de la Nada, Ramon de Ordoñez y Aguilar examined the ruins in 1773, and from 1949 to 1952 Alberto Ruz Lhuillier excavated for INAH, in 1952 lifting a slab in the temple floor to find the stair down to Pakal's tomb, then the richest scientifically excavated burial known in the Americas (Wikipedia, Palenque).

Highlights

• The Temple of the Inscriptions - the pyramid-tomb of the great king Pakal.
• The Palace - the sprawling palace with its distinctive tower.
• The jungle setting - the temples rising from rainforest full of wildlife.
• The refined carvings - the exquisite Maya reliefs and stucco.

When to go

November to April for the drier, though still humid, season; go at opening to see the temples in the cool morning mist, when howler monkeys roar in the surrounding jungle, an unforgettable atmosphere.

Before you go

It is remote in the jungle of Chiapas, so reaching it takes effort, and the climate is hot and very humid. The early morning mist and monkey calls are magical but mean an early start. Only part of the vast city is cleared, the rest still swallowed by rainforest.

Nearby

The waterfalls of Agua Azul and Misol-Ha and the highland town of San Cristobal are within reach.

Key facts