As you enter the site, at the middle, to the right you see a large platform with two buildings atop it Building 12 is known as the Temple of the Skull due to a relief found at the bottom of a pilaster there. This two-corridor temple faces north. Building 13 also has two corridors, but only the bases of its walls remain.

Temple of Inscriptions
Rising to the east is the structure, which is not only among the best preserved but also the one, which contains the most information. It is called the temple of Inscriptions because of three large limestone tablets with hieroglyphic inscriptions on the outside. This structure, a staired, temple-crowned pile, is decorated with stucco relief. Inside, two flights of stairs go below to an imposing crypt which houses the sarcophagus of Lord Shield 2, who ruled Palenque between 680 and 720 AD The sarcophagus itself, its monumental stone cover, and the walls of the crypt are all garnished in low reliefs. These inscriptions not only express the name, origin, and the ancestry of the chieftain; they also portray the scene of the Lord of Palenque's death. Shown in them, too, are the celestial environment and various deities, signs and symbols that together represent the Mayan vision of the cosmos.

The Palace
Located at the center of the Mayan city, it is so named because of its composition, which includes four courtyards, long corridors and a watchtower. The huge building took on its present form after any number of architectural modifications over more than 400 years. Its complexity is seen in the wide variety of elements it contains. These distinguish Palenque's architecture, namely staired edifices, stairways, courtyards, corridors, underground galleries, passageways, windows, door jambs, drainage, panels with hieroglyphic writing and extensive stucco decorations, some of which still retain traces of various colors. The cluster is dominated by a four-tier watchtower, inside of which is a stairway to the top.

Building 10
It consists of a low platform with a south-facing stairway made with large stone blocks. The architectural elements seen there include the temple walls and parts of the building's tiers. The structure as a whole still lacks exploration. Ball Court. On the aforementioned platform are two additional platforms lying parallel to each other so as to house the ball court. These too need further exploratory and restoration work.

Temple of the Court
At the front of the next terrace, which lies on the south side of the site, you see the Temple of the Court, named after Frederick Waldeck, who is said to have lodged here while exploring the site. This building is made up of five staired tiers and its main façade faces east. The temple, placed at the very top, still retains all its architectural components.

North Cluster
This cluster rises to the left and marks the north edge of the site. In it there are five temples, each on its own platform. Today, they appear to be a single unit, although they undoubtedly were built in different periods of time.

The Aqueduct
To the southeast is Otolum Creek, which crosses the site from south to north, necessitating the construction of a bridge on the north edge, at the so-called Bathing Place of the Queen. Otolum Creek was covered over upstream, at the section corresponding to the façade of the Palace. This construction work, called The Aqueduct, allowed the joining of two important sections of the site.

Temple of the Cross
At the southeast edge, at ground level, higher than the above-described structures, you come to a spacious plaza ringed by several buildings. The Temple of the Cross rises on the north side. This imposing staired bulk looks southward and retains such elements as its cresting and a fretted stone wall, which completed the whole. Most impressive in this particular element are the remains of its profuse stucco decoration. Inside the building is a small, shrine like temple, the entrance to which is flanked by two stone tablets carved in low relief. They show two, richly attired male personages, one an old man smoking a pipe. On the central tablet, now exhibited at the National Museum of Anthropology, is a depiction of the earth monster sprouting a cornstalk shaped as a cross, on which perches a fabled bird. To either side of the cornstalk is an on-looking personage. The hieroglyphic inscriptions give a date corresponding to the year 642 AD

Temple 14
Located to the east, inside it there are tablets with inscriptions and personages, together with signs and symbols. Temple of the Sun. It is the best preserved, as witnessed in the second tiers cresting and part of the modeled stucco decoration.

Building of the Leafy Cross
It lies to the east. Its name comes from the tablet in its interior and whose main element seems to represent a cross. The entire façade of this building was obliterated, leaving only the second corridor complete. The plaza extends towards the south, where there are certainly at least seven unexplored buildings. Temple of the Beautiful relief. It is located upstream on the left bank of Otolum Creek, behind the Temple of Inscriptions. A nineteenth-century finding at this temple was a relief, today vanished, which showed a richly attired personage sitting cross-legged on a throne held up by wild cats.

AUTHORS: Arnoldo Gonzalez and Roberto Garcia Moll, archaeologists
Copyright INHA