Palenque
Zona ArqueolóGica (INAH) / Parque Nacional Palenque · Palenque, Chiapas
Palenque is the most beautiful Maya city in Mexico and the place where the Maya script was cracked open. It stands where the last green foothills of the Chiapas highlands drop toward the Gulf plain, its white towers and roof-combs rising out of rainforest loud with howler monkeys. The city peaked in the seventh century under K'inich Janaab' Pakal, who ruled for nearly seventy years and built the Palace with its unique four-storey tower. The Temple of the Inscriptions, a stepped pyramid, turned out to hide his tomb: Alberto Ruz Lhuillier found the hidden stair in 1949 and opened the crypt in 1952, revealing a carved sarcophagus lid that is among the great objects of the ancient Americas. The long, well-kept texts here let scholars prove the glyphs recorded real kings and real dates. Only a small fraction of the city is cleared; the rest sleeps under the trees. Plan a full morning, arrive at opening, and expect two separate fees at two gates. Chiapas has had road disputes, so check current state travel advice and drive by day.
Carretera Palenque-Zona Arqueológica km 8, Palenque, Chiapas, 29960, Mexico
⚠ OPEN DAILY, roughly 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with last admission about an hour before closing. ⚠ THERE ARE TWO SEPARATE CHARGES AT TWO SEPARATE GATES - a national park fee on the access road and the INAH archaeological admission at the site itself, several kilometres apart. Bring pesos in cash for both. ⚠ ARRIVE AT OPENING for mist, howler monkeys and an empty plaza; the coaches come at ten. ⚠ PAKAL'S TOMB CHAMBER IS CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC. ⚠ It rains here in every month. ⚠ The signed jungle path from the plaza down to the site museum is the best part of the visit and is a daylight route only. ⚠ HOURS AND FEES NOT VERIFIED FOR THIS FILE.