Palenque
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Palenque
Palenque
the modern name for the ruins of a large city in the state of Chiapas, Mexico; the political and cultural center of the Mayans in the third to eighth centuries A.D. Among the remains are the ruins of a palace, measuring 92 m by 68 m in area and consisting of a group of buildings surrounding two large and two small courtyards and a square tower; the Temple of the Sun; the Temple of the Cross; and the Temple of Inscriptions, deep within which a crypt was discovered in 1952, with a false ceiling, bas-reliefs on the walls, and a sarcophagus in the center —evidently a ruler’s tomb. All the buildings are richly embellished with stucco reliefs.
Palenque was probably destroyed by invading tribes from the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in the ninth century. The ruins were known to exist in the 18th century and have been repeatedly investigated, notably by Mexican archaeologists from 1949 to 1968.
REFERENCES
Kinzhalov, R. V. Iskusstvo drevnikh maiia. Leningrad, 1968.Mellanes Castellanos, E. Monografia de Palenque. Mexico City, 1951.
Séjourné, L. Palenque, una ciudad maya. Mexico City, 1952.
Fuente, Beatriz de la. Palenque en la historia y en el arte. Mexico City, 1968.