Palenque, home of the mysterious
civilization. Palenque is located on the coastal plain
at the base of the Chiapas
in Mexico. Palenque is covered by a rain forest that looks
northeast from the hills in the Maya highlands. The
buildings that were constructed by the Mayans were temples
that often had special person buried inside. Their temples were built in a distinctive
style based on multiple doorways, upper facades and openwork
roof tops. Instead of making a statue like the ones we make
today, they had the actual form They carved their pictures
of their rulers on very thick sheets of stone. Sometime they
would model or in other words do a rough draft in plaster
and place it on the wall of their buildings. Both types of
boards, plaster and stone, were sometimes painted with
bright colors. The interior walls of a temple would show
remnants of modeled and painted decoration. Palengue's
artists sometimes left unfinished sculptures and ceremonial
artifacts. Among the sculptures were some that were
full-figured as human forms in a ceremonial costume and
incredible three-headed monster masks.