Palenque, the city “where men became gods”

Trapped in a dense tropical jungle, the Palenque archeological zone hides away majestic tombs of kings and queens who have been immortalized in meticulous reliefs and through legends that still live on today such as Pakal the Great and the Red Queen.

Eduardo Cabrera, a general tourism guide, says that Palenque is one of the most complete cities built by the Mayans that still exists today, despite the fact that the 24 pyramids and buildings at the site represent only 1% of those that are still buried beneath land and vegetation.

And although in the city where “men became gods,” is safeguarded 24 hours a day, there are still constant reports of robberies of prehispanic relics that are unearthed as by the roots of giant trees in the area that fall over.

“Whenever there are storms, the trees' roots expand, some of them fall over, resulting in landslides that expose archeological sites. There needs to be better surveillance in the area; there should be more focus on this historical site,” said the tour guide.

The famous Mesoamerican ballgame remembers victors and defeated, which in reality was a form of voluntary sacrifice in which players were believed to become “immortal.”

The captain of the losing team was decapitated at the end of the game, but the winning team also accepted the same fate through honors and festivities “because they had already achieved immortality.”

Those games, according to Cabrera, were an “intense” version of football or basketball and were played during important cosmic phenomena such as a solar eclipse or planetary alignment.

The two most important figures in Palenque were the Red Queen and King Pakal, The Great, the leaders during the height of the city's splendor, whose lives remain a mystery to this day.