Palenque (Palenque) is the remains of an ancient city of the Mayan civilization, well preserved in the jungle of the southern state of Chiapas in southern Mexico. Palenque makes an unforgettable impression – lost in the humid jungle, often at the mercy of fog, the city looks like an alien abode.
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Since 1981, the city has been granted National Park status, and since 1987 it has been protected by UNESCO. Palenque holds the unofficial title of “the most refined and elegant city in South America”. In ancient times, the walls of its buildings were decorated with stucco and paintings, some of which have been recreated.
Among all the buildings of Palenque stands out the Temple of Inscriptions, named so because of the abundance of hieroglyphics. The remains of expressive bas-reliefs can be seen on the facades of the structure. In the wall of the Temple are bricked up plates with the longest known inscriptions of the Maya, consisting of 620 relief hieroglyphs. The temple stands on a 20-meter pyramid, and a staircase with 70 steps leads to the top.
.‘ A reconstructed replica of the sarcophagus of Pacal the Great at Mexico City’s National Museum of Anthropology
But the most incredible was the drawing on the slab of the sarcophagus, in deciphering which, in addition to archaeologists participated and ufologists and experts in astronautics. On the slab is a detailed image of a man in a spacesuit, sitting in the seat of an aircraft, unusually similar to a spaceship! The pilot’s hands are on the levers, and in front of him is a very obvious control panel with numerous instruments. There is still an ongoing debate about who and what is depicted on the slab of the sarcophagus, it is one of the most amazing mysteries of the Maya.
