Palenque

Spectacular, impressive, breathtaking, there really isn’t an appropriate adjective to describe what I saw rising up out of the jungle upon arrival to Palenque.

The natural setting amidst the rainforest helps make Palenque the most distinctive Mayan site that we have visited yet.

We got an early start to the morning and made the short drive from our eco-hotel to meet up with our excellent guide for the day, Victor.

He explained to us that the golden age of Palenque lasted from 600-800 A.D. with an estimated departure from the site around 900. It is not known why the extensive site was abandoned but there is speculation that it was due to the agriculture techniques destroying the land and making it no longer fruitful or inner marriage creating a weakened population. Whatever the reason, the jungle gladly reclaimed the site and kept its secret for many centuries. There are still many pyramids and temples yet to be uncovered at Palenque but financial and environmental concerns have prevented any further excavation at this time.

After entering the main site, we were taken on a walk through the rain forest where Victor and his little helper showed us some of the natural vegetation in the area that created all the natural colorings that would have appeared all over the walls of the Palenque structures.

As we have learned throughout the trip, many of the indigenous people still use these natural dyes to the handicrafts and clothing that they make.

We exited the rainforest and reentered the spectacular complex that really does just seem to rise up out of the jungle around it. There are many large mounds completely covered in vegetation that are also home to yet to be discovered temples and pyramids.

I had to keep reminding myself throughout the day that all these structures were creating before the use of metals or the wheel. Jade and obsidian were used to shape the limestone rocks. The process was a slow one as the Palace structure at Palenque, built during the Pakal dynasty, took over 100 years to build and stretches for over 8,000 square meters. Palenque housed the cemetery for the Royal Family and over 1,000 temples have been uncovered to date that pay homage to Maya deities. One special tomb was unearthed in 1994 and is called the tomb of the red queen because the inside of the structure that housed the body was tinted a bright red color.

She was covered in jade so the speculation exists that she was probably Pakal’s sister, mother or girlfriend.

Pakal’s tomb was uncovered in the 1950’s with the coffin weighing in at 12 tons and the slab at 4 tons. It is thought that the pyramid would have been created around the massive coffin after it was built. The skeleton of Pakal, who lived from 603-683, indicated that one of his legs was shorter than the other. This physical characteristic is also corroborated by many of the images of him that are carved into the estelas, or reliefs, that are scattered throughout the site. This type of physical deformity was common as was multiple digits, club feet and albinoism due to the prevalent custom of inner-marriage among the ancient Maya.

In addition to their achievements in the lofty areas of mathematics and astronomy, the Maya also made practical gains in establishing households amidst the rainforest. Here is a picture of one of the bedrooms in the palace complete with a hard stone bed.

They also had toilets and steam rooms in the bathroom area of the palace as seen by the Maya version of a squat toilet.

The Maya people had the most developed arch form of their day which has now come to be known as the imperfect arch. This architectural element is seen throughout the temples and palaces of Palenque. They used stucco to adhere the limestone pieces and as decoration for the frescoes that adorned the outer and inner walls of the structures. This remnant of one of these decorative paintings has been completely exposed to the wind, rain, and sun for over a 1000 years and still exists to give testimony to the skills of the Mayans.

Only about 60% of the Mayan glifs are able to be read because so much of the codices were destroyed at the time of the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Their base 20 number system is thought to come from the counting using both their fingers and toes.

Easily the best part of the day was the exploring and climbing that we were able to do.

This was an incredibly accessible archaeological site and I left Palenque with the sense that I had truly been given a glimpse and allowed to enter into the mysterious world of the ancient Maya people.