Quetzalcoatl · Derek Fiechter & Brandon Fiechter

Doubt we’ll  ever get to visit
King Pakal’s magnificent Mayan city of Palenque.
Its deep in the Yucatan jungle.

Rose and I come down to Mexico to be by the Ocean.
And there’s no beaches in Palenque.
Fact is it’s sheer Luck (HA!) that our previous vacations here
were close to Chichen Itza, Ek Balam,
Tulum, and Coba.

So what’s the bid deal with King Pakal and Palenque?
Lots.

Joshua J. Mark writes:
worldhistory.org/Kinich_Janaab_Pacal/#:~:text=Pacal%20assumed%20the%20throne%20of,who%20succeeded%20him%20in%20rule.
“Today the city of Pakal the Great (Palenque) is the most extensively studied of all the Maya sites, even Chichen-Itza, because of the grandeur of the architecture and the precision of the inscriptions, which tell the story of its most venerated king and the splendid city he raised to greatness.”

But there’s more:

Pakal himself was very unique.

Wikipedia says:
” Pakal (603 – 683) ascended the throne at age 12 …”
“During a reign of 68 years—the fifth-longest verified regnal period of any sovereign monarch in history, the longest in world history
for more than a millennium …”

Pakal therefore reached the age of 80 years old.
I would guess the lifespan of the average Mayan of that era would
have been about 50 years old?

It’s also assessed that Pakal was at least 7 feet tall!
That would make him a giant compared to the
average Mayan of that era  who was just over 5 feet tall.

Other interesting – and amazing facts:

Palenque was almost completely untouched by war, nature, or plunder by grave robbers, and revealed literally hundreds of valuable artifacts:

Perhaps the most sensational (and controversial) artifact discovered at Palenque was the incredible (and huge)
sarcophagus lid on Pakal’s coffin:

The controversy?
Those Ancient Astronaut theorists say this looks like a a guy sitting in a cockpit – operating some kind of craft.

And it does.

Presently archaeologists estimate that
only 5% of Palenque has been uncovered.

I could go on and on about this place,
but that’s enough for now.