Palenque was the first discovered of all the Mayan cities. It's also one of the best conservated. Palenque was designed by the best architects of all the Maya land, and also by the best writers, as we can appreciate by all the beatiful hieroglyphic texts trough out the site.

Two of Palenque's most important buildings are the Temple of the Inscriptions, which houses the unique burial chamber of King Pacal, and the multiroom Palace, with its unique four-story tower. North of the Palace is a plaza with a small ball court on its east side. The north side of the plaza is bounded by a series of small temples, including the Temple of the Count, named after Count Frederick Waldeck, who lived and studied here in the 19th century.

Below the temple of the inscriptions is a path leading downward to the door of another small chamber, right outside this door the bones of five sacrificed men and one woman were found. Placed in the center of the chamber was a very beautiful sarcophagus carved with hieroglyphics that record Pacal's life and his ancestors. On the walls of this chamber nine stucco figures of the Bolontiku, the nine lords of the Maya underworld Xibalba, were found.

Three of the most important buildings of the site are located around a very large court: The temple of the cross to the north, the largest of the three represent all that is supernatural and the origins of men. The temple of the sun, to the west, has the most complete exterior of them all, its designs are quite breathtaking. Finally to the east is the temple of the "Foliated Cross", the final of the three central buildings in this group, has one of the most complete remnants of a doorsill in the Maya region. One can still view the red and green pigments on the decorative designs of the sill, which provide a glimpse of what the site may have looked like while still in use.

Other groups of buildings exist along the northwest-to-southeast ridge, south of where the main complex is located. There are various temples along the waterfalls that follow the path of the stream that divides the center of the site, as well as complexes overlooking the entire site from bases higher on the hillside. Not much is known about these aspects of the Palenque site.

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Chichén-Itzá|Tikal|Palenque |Uxmal