Palenque

Palenque, anciently known as Lakamha, is the site of a Maya city-state near the Usumacinta River in the Mexican state of Chiapas; its ruins date from about 226 BCE to about 799 CE. A medium-sized site, smaller than Tikal or Copán, it holds some of the finest architecture, sculpture and bas-relief carving the Maya produced. Sacked by Calakmul in 599 and 611, the city was rebuilt under K'inich Janaab' Pakal, who ruled from 615 to 683 and whose tomb Alberto Ruz Lhuillier found in the Temple of the Inscriptions in 1952. Elite construction in the ceremonial centre ceased sometime after 800, and the site was later abandoned and overgrown by forest.