At the western end of the Maya World settlers started a small hamlet around 100 BC at the northern end of the Chiapas highlands. Palenque started as a small village of farmers and hunters and it is likely that more people came and settled the site around 150 AD, perhaps immigrants from the middle Usumacinta River. Theirs would gradually become a small ceremonial center, and -in time- it would grow to be an important and very powerful city. Just one century after it had been established, its citizens had built one of the most amazing, mysterious and admired ancient cities in the world, famous for its sophisticated sculptural style…

The city then turned into the regional capital of a very powerful state, whose dynastic rulers dominated an extended region covering a large portion of present day Chiapas and Tabasco, in Mexico. The city itself was small, covering only about 2.2 square kilometers. However, in this area there are more than 1,500 structures, attesting to the city's grandeur and monumental architecture.

It was around 431 AD, with the ascension to power of ruler K'uk B'alam I (Jaguar Quetzal I), that the city experienced an unprecedented growth and gained importance. This is reflected in the abundance, size and complexity of the buildings erected at this time in the city's centre. Evidence of long distance trading also proves an increased availability of jade, obsidian, cinnabar and sea shells during this time period. As many of the other great Classic kingdoms it maintained contacts with, such as Tikal with whom it had cooperative relations, the city was also becoming richer and richer…

Like all the other Maya polities Palenque struggled with many fights. Some of them successful and others that ended in disaster. Some of the sites Palenque had conflicts with were Tonina, Piedras Negras and Calakmul, Palenque's main enemies.

It wasn't only a considerable labor force, integrated by many construction workers, that had to be summoned and dominated by the Palenque rulers to build the platforms, ceremonial compounds, plazas and palaces, it was also the work of several outstanding architects and designers that had to be at the rulers' command, as some of the most exquisite and notable buildings in the Maya area are found precisely in Palenque. Thanks to epigraphic discoveries we know the specific function of many of these buildings, many of them were for political and administrative uses, some were living complexes for the elite, while others were purely religious buildings and designed to carry out ceremonies and rituals. By the year 800 AD Palenque had around 8,000 inhabitants. It was around that time that the city's importance began to diminish. A century later it was completely deserted. The real reason for this is still not completely clearly understood, but there are reasons to believe that conflicts and ultimately war with neighboring Tonina may have had something to do with it.

 

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