It was Palenque 's most important ceremonial compound. The oldest indications of ritual activity date back to the 6th Century AD, as suggested by the presence for incense burners. Pakal had only one building dedicated to him during his 68 year reign, while his son Kan Balam II had four, known today as the Cross Group. These are all arranged in a beautiful formation around the plaza southeast of the Temple of the Inscriptions. Kan Balam used this three Temple to secure his legitimation on the throne between 684 Ad and 702 Ad.

The problem was Pakal - his father - inherited the throne from his mother. This was not the normal way. So also Pakal started to explain that it was in order that he became the ruler. And his son makes the same efforts. He linked together the birth date from his father to that of First Mother and let us know, like God GII comes from the first Mother and the First Father, he Kan Balam was the son of the godlike Pakal . He also told us, the First Mother was the first king of Palenque . So the people have to accept that it is not unnormal that a woman ruled over Palenque how it is done his grandmother Lady Tz'akb'u Ajaw . And he also closed the gap between the founder of the dynasty and Lady Beast. He tells us from a mythic ruler named U-Kix-Chan . This ruler was born November 11 993 B.C. and came on the throne on March 28, 967 B.C. From this person Chan-Balum goes to the founder Bahlum-Kuk .

The cross carvings figuring in some buildings here symbolize the ceiba tree, which was held sacred by the Maya, who though this tree held the Universe up. The Cross Group is formed by the Temple of the Sun, the Temple of Cross and the Temple of the Foliated Cross and are all built on natural hills, on the north sides, east and west of the plaza respectively. The buildings are formed by pyramidal basements, finished by spacious temples of double vaults at the top, in whose interiors are independent sanctuaries found, that house extraordinary sculpted limestone tablets with elaborate iconography depicting scenes from the cosmos, while containing extensive texts in Maya hieroglyphs. The triad formed on this platform is reminiscent of triadic schemes elsewhere since as early as La Danta , a huge pyramid builded in Preclassic times at El Mirador , Guatemala . All of this

The Temple of the Cross is associated with the Blue Housed and represented the mythical realm where its ruling deity had been born, Chaak or God G I of the Palenque triad. God GI is very involved with the upper level, the heavenly. The term for this God is Jun Ye Nal Chaak . The birth from GI was in the year 2360 B.C. The Temple of the Foliated Cross is linked to the terrestrial or Earth level and its ruling God was K'awiil (God G II), associated with agriculture, blood sacrifice (water, semen, thus life) and lineage. The Temple of the Sun was representing the Underworld and its ruling deity was Kinich Ahaw Pakal or Shield of the Sun Faced Lord, also named Jaguar Sun of the Underworld (G III). As well, gives us the date of the birth from GIII. He is born 4 days later as GI and GII its born 16 days later.

It is important to point out that the associations of Gods with those levels is not static but dynamic, the deities complemented each other or connected to each other to symbolize the movement of the Universe, expressed by the switching between day and night, the Sun's daily cycle, and for the changes in season through the stages of the agricultural cycle. After all, according to Maya belief, those Gods were brothers and shared certain powers and contributed as one to maintain order and the sacred mechanisms of the World...

The first construction program in the Cross Group implicated the build of Temple XV . After ceramics found in a Tomb of Temple XV it is now clear that this Structure was the earliest Temple of the group and it had funerary, ceremonial and housing functions a s the incense burners demonstrate . Later, the architectural landscape at the Cross Group was modified after the reign of Kan Balam II , in the course of the 8th Century. Temple XIV was built during the reign of K'an Hoy Chitam II (702 AD to 711 AD) He was heir to his older brother. Another building, Structure D, which was made from perhisable material has traces of household activity (manos and metates for example). In Structure A, searchers found a vase in orange and black. This vase was decorated with a water fall.

The triad Gods were represented in incense burners, the people of Palenque called these P'ulut K'u, or God Incenseburner. At the top they placed the incense and blood burner they offered these Gods. They were used for a whole katun, or ending of a 7,200 day cycle, at the end of which they were replaced with new ones. The old incense burners were buried in the base of the Cross Group. The ritual included a last burning of incense in them, probably smaller ceramic pots with food offerings, and in some cases human finger bones were offered.

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