The heat clothed everything… squeezed out the brow, the body, the fingertips with dark wrap around folliage. The downpours would last a day at a time. Then the rains would lift and declare general steaminess… torrents would once again be streams and the earth would absorb the floods. The bugs would emerge. Sweeping armies of vicious black ants. Cockroaches. Wasps. Beetles. Grasshoppers. Leaf-cutters. Innumerable little crawlers. Between the twittering bird life, there’d be clicks and creeping… or else the majestic belching of bullfrogs… the nocturnal chirping of lizards. That was the jungle at Palenque. Heat, vegetation, water and wild life… perpetually acticve, exotic and feeding. The forest was utterly impassable without a machete… every spot occupied, growing, reaching. Every tree inhabited and afflicted with competing lifeforms… strangled and sprouting with manifold variations… mosses and vines and flowers. Where paths could be followed they invariably led to exquisite scenes. Ant cities with great earthy mounds and towers… lily strewn pools… waterfalls… streams… great trees beset with glittering fireflies. In small doses the rainforest was intoxicating. In larger ones, utterly repelent.
The ruins of Palenque owe their magic to their setting. Located in the jungle in the south-east of the country… slightly north in the state of Chiapas… the collective ruins of Palenque form one of Mexico’s most famous, extensive and awesome archeological zones. Only a fraction of it is open for public perusal… the greater part in the thick of the undergrowth… the outer boundaries are being continually reassesed… of 500 buildings in a 15sq km area, the majority are unexcavated. The principal structures are presented on well groomed grounds… little white paths wind over a well trimmed lawn… between the pyramids, the palace, the ball courts. Beyond that though… into the jungle… the growth is rampant and enveloping… the structures unrestored… roots twist around blackened blocks… sky is obscured by canopy. The paths take twisting routes into it… descending plateaus precariously, ascending faces haphazardly… crossing over streams on little wooden bridges… passing endless waterfalls cascading down tiers. That is the edge of the public site and the start of the private… the Palenque that sprawls into the darkness. Given the impassability of the terrain, we were able to locate only a single collection of buildings in the prohibited zone. ‘Group IV’ it was called… neither on the map nor trail… we made it in through a little opening near the road… made it out by a sewer close to the gate. Group IV had been abandoned some time, though a heavily faded and unreadable plaque revealed it had once formed part of the touristic trail.
The former city of Palenque played an integral role in the world of the ancient Maya. During its glory days, it stood as one of the major powers of the region (along with Tikal, Yaxchilan, Calakmul and Copan… these cities marked the corners of the Classic Maya Universe.) Exemplary of an era unsurpassed in terms of cultural and intellectual heights, the architecture and artifacts of Palenque are some the most exquisite every uncovered… sublime artistic achievements and immense feats of engineering and construction. King Pakal (also known as Sun Shield or White Macau) led the city to prominence between 615 and 683. He ordered the construction of Palenque’s principal structures including the Temple of Inscriptions. This large pyramid stands 25m tall upon eight levels. During the winter solstice, the sun can be seen descending into the temple that crowns the apex. The structure functioned (in part, at least) as a tomb for King Pakal at the end of his illustrious reing. Archeologists discovered a narrow tunnel reaching from the temple’s top deep into the pyramid interior… to a burial chamber containing masks, offerings and an intricately carved stone slab… the sarcophygus lid. Among other things, the stone slab depict King Pakal with a sacred cross and descending into the jaws of an ‘earth monster’. This representation was misinterpreted by some to be an ancient Maya person commandeering a space craft… there are manifold theories connecting Pre-Columbian civilisations with extra-terrestrial life and UFO type phenomena. The interpretation is intriguing, but ultimately incorrect. It is likely that the temple of Inscriptions would have served a ritual purpose other than as a burial chamber. It is likely that Pakal would have been summoned back from the dead… having now joined the ranks of the celestial ancestors.
Chan Bahlum suceeded Pakal and consolidated economic power and political growth. The Temples of the Crosses were built during his reign and those structure comemorate the city’s three patron gods… the day time sun, the underworld sun and the god of royal lineage (god K). The temple of the sun stands on the east side of the plaza… exterior partially blackened… worn carvings visible… gods, people, icons, glyphs… crumbled steps lead to an interior apportioned into three chambers. Archeologists on the frontier have recently discovered some neat tricks of light concerning these rooms… it seems the construction work is slightly skewed so as to afford certain effects. During the vernal and autumnul equinoxes, sunset light is focussed into a fine beam that strikes the furthest corners of the left and right chambers. The central chamber contains a relief that becomes highly illuminated during the summer solstice. The relief depicts a scene of ascension where a small underworld god is being proferred up. Scholars have therefore linked this temple to the underworld sun in Maya cosmogyny. Across the plaza and directly opposite stands the Temple of the Folliated Cross dedicated to the daytime sun. This pyramidal structure is largely overgrown with grass… erratic steps reach up… the front of the building is demolished revealing a corbeled vault (triangular archway) and large keyhole shapes. The interior scenes again depict ascension… they’re dominated by a folliated cross or Universal Tree with snake branches vomitting up. A ‘Celestial Bird’ crowns it. Two figures stand on monsters, one emerging from a seed. The pair both posess snakes (vomitting also) and one of them holds a minature snout nosed god. The temple of the cross and temple 14 are both dedicated to god K, Bolon Tzacab, a deity associated with royal lineage. The former structure is the largest in the cross group and reveals an ascension scene with God K smoking a cigar. The latter building reveals a dancing Chan Bahlum receiving Bolon Tzacab from his mother.
Kan Xul suceeded Chan Bahlum. His main contributions were extensions to the great palace and construction of an observation tower. The great palace dominates the main plaza… a large grey enclosure set with manifold rooms, tunnels, stairways… walls broken here and there by windows and arches… decaying roof comb set on top. From within its confines rises the observation tower… dilapidated. Chac Zutz suceeded in 722 and reigned for 9 years. A ‘gap’ of 33 years ensues where the city probably suffered a crisis of sorts. The last recorded leader was Kuk, who ascended in 764. The exact causes for Palenque’s decline and fall are unknown, although recent evidence suggests that the nearby site of Tonina waged war on the city towards the close of the Classic period.
Palenque is a continual source of fascination for visitors and researchers alike. Many organisations are conducting on-going studies to uncover the secrets and history of the once glorious city. The Palenque Mapping Project, for example, is working to document hidden structures deep in the jungle. The Center for Maya Exploration are examining hitherto unnoticed nuances of the city’s architecture… archeoastronomy is their focus. The latter organisation helped provide source material for these notes through a lecture given by Dr Ed Barnhart at the Linda Schele center.