Palenque — Palenque
Palenque Ovedc, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY SA 4.0

Site · Mexico

Palenque

Maya, 400–800 CE

Palenque is the Maya city in the foothills of Chiapas whose elegant architecture and inscriptions record the reign of K'inich Janaab' Pakal in the seventh century. It flourished from about 400 to 800 and was abandoned by 900.

CountryMexico
State / provinceChiapas
Dates400–800 CE
StatusArchaeological zone and UNESCO World Heritage Site
Managed byInstituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH)
AccessOpen to the public with a site museum
Coordinates17.484, -92.046 (public site)

What was found

The tomb of Pakal in the Temple of the Inscriptions with its carved sarcophagus lid and jade mask, the Red Queen's tomb, stucco reliefs, the Palace tower and long hieroglyphic panels are the principal finds. The jade mask of Pakal is in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.

Rules

Nothing may be collected, dug, moved or removed at Palenque; it is a protected archaeological site managed by Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH), and taking artifacts, stones or samples is an offence. All pre-Hispanic remains are property of the Mexican nation under the 1972 federal monuments law, and export is prohibited. This article is for study and context only and is not a collecting locality.

Elsewhere

Cite this article

Stratum Study. "Palenque" (Site). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21. https://stratum.black/study/sites/palenque. Accessed 2026-09-21.

@misc{stratum-palenque,
  title        = {Palenque},
  author       = {{Stratum Study}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/sites/palenque}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Site article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21; sources: stratum, commons. Accessed 2026-09-21.}
}

Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.

Sources for this article: Stratum editorial (Stratum editorial);Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-4.0). As of 2026-09-21; Study pack 2026.09. Data reproduced under the licences shown; text in Stratum's own words unless a section names its source.

Found an error? Write to drew@tyr.ac with the article id site:palenque.

Stratum is the inventory, provenance and certificate system for fossil, mineral and shell collections. Study is its open reference: every fact cites its source, and the credits page lists each one with its licence.