Bonampak

Bonampak is a small Maya city in the Lacandon forest of eastern Chiapas, about 21 km from Yaxchilán. It was settled some 1,800 years ago and had its best years between 600 and 800 AD, first under the shadow of Piedras Negras and later as an ally and junior partner of Yaxchilán. The center was never large, but the town spread widely over a fertile valley where maize and cacao were grown. The Lacandon Maya knew the ruins long before outsiders did; in 1946 they guided two foreign visitors to the site, and the first scientific expeditions by the Carnegie Institution and INAH followed between 1946 and 1948.

What makes Bonampak famous is a single building. The Temple of the Paintings, on the first level of the Acropolis, is about 17 meters long and has three rooms, each with its own door, and every surface inside is painted: walls, vaults and the sides of the benches. Together they are the largest and best-preserved Maya murals known. They were commissioned by Chan Muwan II, who came to power in 776. Room 1 shows the presentation of a young heir, nobles being dressed in quetzal feathers and a procession of musicians with drums of turtle shell and conch trumpets. Room 2 shows a battle fought with the help of the king of Yaxchilán, and the captives being tortured on the steps of the Acropolis. Room 3 shows dancers in rich costumes and the royal women drawing blood from their tongues as an offering. The murals were restored by INAH in 1984 and again since 2011.

The rest of the site is a broad grassy plaza with a tall carved stela, and the Acropolis, a stepped hill about 46 meters high with vaulted temples on two levels and more stelae on its stairs. The site sits on land of the Lacandon community of Lacanjá Chansayab, which runs the last stretch of access: private cars stay at the community entrance, and Lacandon-run vans carry visitors along the dirt road to the ruins. A visit is easy to combine with Yaxchilán on a day tour from Palenque, or with a night at the camps of Lacanjá.