The famous archeological site in Chiapas is Palenque, with its main feature being the Palace where the tower is. There is also Pakal's famous tomb that he designed himself with the tree of life inscription on a slab of stone weighing almost 7 tons. He designed his own tomb and made sure it reflected the power he had.
Another mayan city we visited was Yachilan, a rival of Palenque - which we had to get to by boat (previously one had to take a small plane to get to it). The other side of the bank is Guatemala and the river is shared by Mexico and Guatemala.
An architectural feature of this city is the high stone structure that rests above the temples - you can see part of the structure in this picture.
Bonampak was under the rule of Yachilan and is now known for the colour paintings that have been amazingly preserved over the last 1500 years. They are beautiful and seeing them gave me a glimpse of how colourful and beautiful all the walls must have been at that time. There are three mural paintings: the first one depicts a celebration of the birth of a heir (with a Lion King style pose of the baby being held to the public), the second one shows a war scene and the third one represents a celebration of offerings to the gods. Unfortunately it seems I didn't take any pictures of these paintings, but I do have a picture from the top of the temple - you can see how green it is!
Finally the last vestige of Mayan culture we saw in Chiapas was the Lacanja temple in the Lacandon jungle. It was quite surreal to be walking in very dense jungle and suddenly come across a little hill with this temple on it. As opposed to other sites, our Lacandon guide told us it has not been touched or restored since it was found.
Another mayan city we visited was Yachilan, a rival of Palenque - which we had to get to by boat (previously one had to take a small plane to get to it). The other side of the bank is Guatemala and the river is shared by Mexico and Guatemala.
An architectural feature of this city is the high stone structure that rests above the temples - you can see part of the structure in this picture.
Bonampak was under the rule of Yachilan and is now known for the colour paintings that have been amazingly preserved over the last 1500 years. They are beautiful and seeing them gave me a glimpse of how colourful and beautiful all the walls must have been at that time. There are three mural paintings: the first one depicts a celebration of the birth of a heir (with a Lion King style pose of the baby being held to the public), the second one shows a war scene and the third one represents a celebration of offerings to the gods. Unfortunately it seems I didn't take any pictures of these paintings, but I do have a picture from the top of the temple - you can see how green it is!
Finally the last vestige of Mayan culture we saw in Chiapas was the Lacanja temple in the Lacandon jungle. It was quite surreal to be walking in very dense jungle and suddenly come across a little hill with this temple on it. As opposed to other sites, our Lacandon guide told us it has not been touched or restored since it was found.
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