The ancient Maya thrived for some 3,000 years and created a monumental legacy that still inspires pop culture, from animated series to video games. Their stepped stone pyramids and glyph carved temple walls can be found in Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico, home to the well known sites of Tulum, Chichén Itzá, and the Uxmal pyramids.
But the lesser known, lesser trafficked Maya settlements and worship sites of Chiapas—Mexico’s southernmost state—are also worth discovering for their combination of archaeology and nature.
The most famous and largest of them, Palenque, is the focus of the first episode of Season 2 of “Lost Cities Revealed with Albert Lin,” which premieres on the National Geographic Channel and Disney+ November 23. In it, the scientist and National Geographic Explorer Albert Lin uses high tech methods to delve into the storied site.
“Palenque is where Maya archaeology began, from that first glimpse of glyphs and pyramids in the jungle,” says Lin, referring to the site’s rediscovery by 18th-century Spanish explorers.
Here’s how to dive into this influential history amid the mountains and jungles of Chiapas.
Maya society thrived at Palenque between the 5th and 9th centuries A.D., powered by the site’s location on a commercial route between central Mexico and the Yucatán Peninsula. Traders ferried in flint and obsidian from Guatemala and “artisans were able to model stucco in a very advanced stylistic manner,” says archaeologist Carlos Miguel Varela Sherrer, field chief of the site.
Today, most visitors reach the modern city of Palenque by air from Mexico City (1 hour 40 minutes) or Cancún before taking a 15-minute drive through ceiba tree-shaded foothills to the UNESCO World Heritage-recognized site. Hundreds of Maya buildings—many yet to be excavated—sprawl over 3,700 acres of tropical jungle.
The site’s central area, which functioned as a residential, governmental, and religious center, is dominated by the impressive Temple of the Inscriptions, a 75-foot-tall, stepped limestone pyramid. This stone tribute to the region’s most famous ancient ruler, Pakal the Great (615-683 A.D.), was excavated between 1949 and 1954. His jade death mask is now displayed at Mexico City’s National Museum of Anthropology, but the Palenque Site Museum holds a replica of it and the burial chamber.
The tomb beneath the pyramid, closed to the public to prevent damage, has stone walls carved with stylized reliefs of Pakal, his family, and the underworld, as well as an enormous sarcophagus made from a single piece of stone.
“The inside looks like a crystal cave because the limestone has leaked calcite into little stalactites,” says Lin, who entered the tomb and used lidar (light detection and ranging) to explore it on
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