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| This is page one of three for Palenque.
Palenque is located in the state of Chiapas, just north of Guatemala. Palenque hosts one of Mexico's most prominent ruins sites. It was our favourite ruins site of the eight sites that we visited. If people are limited in time when visiting Mexico or are unsure as to which ruin sites to visit, this should be first on their list. Although the other sites are also interesting, we favoured Palenque due to its surrounding jungle and the lack of bikini clad, high healed tourists. | |
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History
The Mayans ruled from approximately 300BC to 600AD. Much of the history of the site detailing the Mayan's amazing feats is unfortunately unknown. There are two primary reasons for this. First, due to the consuming
jungle and humidity many parts of the buildings and records of the culture were destroyed. Second, the religious and political onslaught of other races. This is ofcourse a reference to the Spanish and for example their practice of burning books. | | |
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| | A side view of the Temple of Inscriptions (top left) and the Palace | |
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| | The Palace | |
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| The Temple of the Inscriptions, so called for the numerous carved inscriptions adorning its interior walls is the burial site of Pacal, one of the most important Mayan rulers. His rule lasted for 69 years. Locating this burial chamber proved very difficult. Three years were spent recovering his sarcophagus (see inside Palenque Page)
which was located 2 meters below ground level. | | |
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| The Palace
appears to have been quite an advanced building. It contained advanced aqueducts which were designed to flush out the sewerage system approximately every 5 days. It was the location from which the kingdom was ruled, and it should be mentioned that the power of this kingdom was held by women. | | |
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| | The Palace | |
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| Our experience
We camped at the Maya Bell camp site located a few hundred meters from the ruins. This ground is renowned
for its 'free spirited' people and is a 'hippyville' where Andrew and I felt a little conservative. People can camp or hammock. As the ground is surrounded by jungle the sounds of the night can be quite exhilarating and yet haunting. We were fortunate enough to here some howler monkeys (excuse spelling). They generate an amazingly loud and scary sound. I'm glad that I knew what the noise was, otherwise I would not have been able to get much sleep.See inside Palenque and Palenque from the air on the next two pages. | | |
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| | The Temple of the Corn | |
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| | Sharon | |
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