As the other buildings in the Cross Group, the Temple of the Folliated Cross, is a tall narrow pyramid surmounted by a temple with an elaborate stone roof comb. It contains a carved panel representing sacred rites. There is a Cross on the panel it contains, equally important to the Maya as the symbol is in the Christian faith. In the Maya Cosmological Order it represents the place where the heavens and the Underworld meet with the land of the living! The front half of the builiding is lost so the corbelled arches and keyholes are completely exposed, revealing how the architects at Palenque designed theese buildings. A well preserved inscribed tablet shows a king, probably Pakal, wiht a sun shield emblazoned on his chest, corn growing from his shoulder blades and a sacred quetzal bird on his head (nice idea! I can imagine how Pacal looks when the bird come from the ceiba and sit down on his head!).

The Tablet on the Folliated Cross is perhaps the most impressive of all the Palenque tablets. It contains a scene from Kan Balam II's enthronement, and he is accompanied by his father Pakal II. Or, after Grube and Martin, we see the king as child and as an adult . Both reverence the corn or maize plant, that has a celestial bird on top, and is growing on a base formed by a k'an or precious glyph on a mask. The symbol of K'an represents the corn seed, from which the plant grows. Kan Balam II offers an image to the K'awil God, ruler deity of the temple and agriculture! (In the most cases K'awiil is the god of the ruling lineage.) It is on top of a Witz Nal glyph, or mask of the God of the Corn Mountain ... Pakal is on top of a snail, from which there are corn leaves growing... At sundown during the summer solstice, the sanctuary of the Foliated Corss is lit up by the sun, moment of the annual cycle that marks the fullness of the rainy season and farming activities, as it is then that the first corn stalks grow. On the left hand side of the glyps there are several episodes of the creatin of the World are recounted. Such as the birth of K'awil in 2360 BC. On the right hand side consacration ceremonies of the temples in this compound are told, one is highly relevant, on July 23re 690 AD. Kan Balam II invoked a supernatural snake the next day during a ritual related to the cult of the ancestors.

The Text of this temple let us known that the First Mother, Lady Beast, make at the End of the 2.Katun a bloodoffering. Kan Balam also connect the birth date from First Mother with that of his father Pacal. So he will secure his legimitaet: such like God K'awiil is the son of the First Mother, he Kan Balam is the son of the godlike Pacal.

Unlike most Maya Cities Palenque has few stelae with the notable exception of stela 1. known as the DEad Woman. It was originally placed in front of the Cross Temple . (Then this part should be under the Cross Temple.) In it is Kan Balam II, who authored the remodellation of the entire complex. The date inscribed on the stella is 8 ahaw, 13 cumku (9.13.0.0.0. 8 ahaw, 8 wo) the first date must be wrong. The second comes from the museum .corresponding to March 18th 692 March 15 Ad, the date on which the Group's buildings entered public functions. Kan Balam II holds a bag full of incense, in the allusion of the act of burning incense during the temples consacration!

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