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Palenque was located at the beginning of the Tumbalá mountains in the vicinity of the Usumacinta River about one hundred thirty kilometers south of Ciudad del Carmen in Chiapas, Mexico. Smaller than either Tíkal or Copán, the medium sized Mayan archaeological site, was abandoned long before the Spanish came to the area. Once known as Lakam Ha, "Big Wide Waters", because of the many cascading waters and springs situated there, Palenque overlooks a great expanse of verdant jungle. Even though pottery remains dating from 300 BCE have been found, most of the building ruins were constructed sometime between the seventh and tenth centuries ACE.
Thirty-four of the
approximately five hundred structures at the Palenque site have been excavated
and/or reconstructed. Many of the other ruins resemble small hilly mounds
blanketed with lush jungle foliage.
The Temple of the Cross, Temple of the Sun, and Temple of the Foliated Cross were named by early explorers. The cross type patterns they discovered on two of the stone bas-reliefs in the intricately carved inner chambers were actually Mayan depictions of the World Tree mentioned in Maya Creation Myths. The Maya depicted the World Tree as a regal towering tree. They venerated the star clouds of the Milky Way and the center of our galaxy near Sagittarius. Sometimes the World Tree was depicted by the Mayan more like the Cross where the ecliptic resembles a bar crossing the major axis of the World Tree.
In the winter, the dry
season, when the star clouds were not as bright, it became the White Boned
Serpent. Every twenty years the rulers erected a stone tree, stela, with World
Tree symbols, where the ruler connected himself to life and the sky... Continue on
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