Why does one come to Palenque?

Salvador our local guide took us on an early morning forest walk (7 am!) where he showed us a tiny bit of the unexcavated ruins still enveloped in jungle. Just 2% has been found with ground penetrating radar. The whole area has been mapped out as to where the buildings are still hidden. It was so easy to miss it.

This 90 minute walk was a good introduction to what lay ahead of us. At least we now had a much better appreciation of the restoration work that has already been done but more importantly of the many decades if not centuries of work that still lies ahead of the locals.

Looking at the map of the whole area and what has been restored or more importantly what huge expanse that still has to be uncovered.

This is why people flock to Palenque!

It is famous for the tombs found filled with riches in honour of the renowned Lord Pakal and the Red Queen. This archaeological site houses more than 200 structures including a series of hilltop temples, towers, tombs and pyramids surrounded by steamy jungle. The most important constructions, which date back to the Classical period (400-700 AD) are the Temple of the Inscriptions, the Crypt, the Palace complex, the Temple of the Cross, the Temple of the Foliated Cross, and the Temple of the Sun.

Decorated with elaborate friezes, sculptures and inscriptions, Palenque is unquestionably one of the most important Mayan archaeological sites.

Only 150 m / 164 yd above sea level it stays at a humid 26 C / 79 F with roughly 2160 mm / 85 in of rain a year.

Palenque is a medium-sized site, much smaller than such huge sites as Tikal or Copán, but it contains some of the finest architecture, sculpture, roof comb and bas-relief carvings that the Mayas produced.

By 2005, the discovered area covered up to 2.5 km² / 1 sq mi, but it is estimated that less than 10% of the total area of the city is explored, leaving more than a thousand structures still covered by jungle.

Film crew about to film a commercial using the Palace complex as the back drop.

Misol-Ha 30 m high waterfall formed as a result of the precipitation of a river by a cliff of limestone.
 
The Cataratas de Agua Azul (Spanish for "Blue-water Falls") consists of over 200 small waterfalls in a series of cascades following one after another in a sequence of cascades. The larger cataracts may be as high as 6 meters / 20 feet. The water is as turquoise blue as it looks in the pictures set against a reddy orange of the bedrock. It has a high mineral content and where it falls on rocks or fallen trees encases them in a thick shell-like coating of limestone.