Zona Arqueolgica Palenque, Palenque

Zona Arqueolgica Palenque, Palenque (Mexico)

Palenque also anciently known as Lakamha was a Maya city state in southern Mexico that flourished in the 7th century. The Palenque ruins date from ca. 226 BC to ca. 799 AD. After its decline it was overgrown by the jungle of cedar mahogany and sapodilla trees but has since been excavated and restored. It is located near the Usumacinta River in the Mexican state of Chiapas about 130 km south of Ciudad del Carmen 150 meters above sea level. It averages a humid 26 C with roughly 2160 millimeters of rain a year. Palenque is a medium-sized site smaller than Tikal Chichen Itza or Copn but it contains some of the finest architecture sculpture roof comb and bas-relief carvings that the Mayas produced. Much of the history of Palenque has been reconstructed from reading the hieroglyphic inscriptions on the many monuments historians now have a long sequence of the ruling dynasty of Palenque in the 5th century and extensive knowledge of the city-states rivalry with other states such as Calakmul and Tonin.