Palenque - photos 1

Palenque or where Lee broke definitively his sandals...

From Campeche, we took the bus direction Palenque. Here we decided to go to visit the Mayan ruins with a tour agency as we will go at the same time to visit the waterfalls of Misol-Ha and Agua Azul. The visit to these waterfalls will be described in a different post. From the waterfalls, we will go directly to San Cristobal de Las Casas, our next stop. The village of Palenque had nothing special but that was the first time since Costa Rica we had a rainstorm...obviously we were out when it started and we arrived at the hotel all wet...

Palenque ruins is a medium-sized site, much smaller than sites as Tikal or Copan but it contains some of the finest architecture and sculpture produced by the Maya. The site was a main Mayan city from the 1st century to the 8th Century then only an agricultural population continued to live here for a few generations. The site was abandoned and few people were living there when the Spanish arrived in the early 16th Century.

- Draw of the site of Palenque. Not as big as Tikal but still lots of pyramids and buildings,
- The Palace and the Tower which is supposed to have served as an observatory. The tower was recreated mid-ninetieth Century,
- Original fine-sculpted tablet discovered in the Palace,
- The Temple of Inscriptions which is Palenques highest building {25 m} and also the house of the main Mayan ruler tomb, Pakal. The roof is a reconstruction and the temple was not accessible to climb,
- Lee and his sandals...they were in a very bad state for a long time but Lee did not want to buy a new pair... well after Palenque, that became an obligation!!!