Where to Go / What to Do in Palenque

ZONA ARQUEOLOGICA PALENQUE
A wonderful Maya ceremonial center, outstanding for the beauty of its constructions. Currently, there is an area of 1,500 m2 open to the public and it is possible to tour its plaza, go up the great steps of its pyramids and visit the crypt with the sarcophagus with the remains of the Palenque lord.

The Temple of the Inscriptions exhibits many hieroglyph writings and some painting as the Maya life and death cycle, masks of the god of the rain and the crypt of the Palenque lord.

The Palace is one of the most beautiful structures of Mayan architecture; it has buildings, subterranean halls, beautifully decorated patios with human figures and chronological and religious scenes.
Other elements of this great culture center are the ball game patio, sun plaza, aqueduct and other buildings.


FRONTERA COROZAL
The place where the archeological sites of Bonanmpak and Yaxchilan converge plus the reserve of the Lagos Azules with Guatemala is known as Frontera Corozal. Erected in it is the proud Museo Comunitario Frontera Corozal, a fruit of the Indian initiative and resulting from the participation of the State government, founded in 1976.

Based on two Maya trails found in the ruins of Yaxchilán, Frontera Corozal is an effort of the Chiapas community to educate society on the ethnic groups inhabiting the Lacandona Jungle; the Lacandones, Choles and Tzeltales. The conservation of task of these prehispanic cultures extends to the point of serving as refuge and shelter for its current inhabitants when Rio Usumacinta grows.

BONAMPAK AND YAXCHILAN
Maya ruins located to the West of Chiapas, near the border with Guatemala. Bonanmpak means “Painted Walls” and is known for its impressive murals describing bloody scenes of preparation for the art of war and real battles. From here, traveling 45 minutes on the Usumacinta River by boat you reach Yaxchilan, home of the “Decapitated god”, a stone sculpture.