Palenque, Chiapas

PALENQUE - Ruined Ancient Mayan City, 17º30 N, 92º W.
100 km SE Villahermosa. According to archeologists, this
was the city of great Pakal Balaam, whose tomb was
discovered inside the temple of inscriptions. The archeo-
logist's tomb - much smaller - can now be seen in the
plaza, outside near the trees. During hot hours, wise
tourists keep to the shade.

To see the inscriptions -- which archeolinguists have now read --
climb the stone stair case or come up the hill path behind and circle
around in front. The temple on top is awesome just in itself, but then
to visit the crypt, deep within the pyramid, a steep, dank staircase
must be carefully descended. Only open certain daylight hours.

At the bottom of the twisting steps you can look into the burial
chamber of Pakal, and see the famous carved stone lid covering his
sarcophagus, on which you can watch him piloting his spaceship
back to Atlantis while he eats popcorn and ascends into the
afterlife. (The part about corn is real.)

The palace next door was mostly rebuilt and enlarged by him.
It is a world-famous must-see labyrinth of rooms, hallways and
patio courtyards. The group of the cross behind the creek
up on the hill is another. Farther afield are more, curious
and beautiful, some rebuilt, much in ruin park like state.
The lost temple beckons from the far jungle path. Just
not half kidding, real.

Palenque was a powerful city which fought their usual or
special wars against other cities and kings. Friends and
enemies benefited and suffered. Some of those kneeling
lords you see sculptured next to the palace patio steps?
Captives begging for war and peace. Sometimes their
finger nails drip blood, sometimes they die playing
ball between heaven and earth. But that's on
another page altogether.

w a r n i n g
entering construction zone pictures
and text in movement when you're not
l o o k i n g

Our mascot is edited from a photo Mikey and Dano shot at Palenque, in the palace. Later we read in a book that this guy was a prisoner captured by the great king Pakal. The name of our mascot was Caiman Sky Turtle. Hmm.