Palenque

History

The ancient Maya city beside modern Palenque flourished during the Classic period, and much of it remains unexplored. By the time the Spanish arrived it lay hidden in the forest, unknown to them.

The present town was founded in 1567 by the Dominican friar Pedro Lorenzo de la Nada, who gathered Ch'ol families living scattered through the Lacandon rainforest. The Ch'ol called the place Otolum, meaning fortified or fenced place, and the Spanish name Palenque, a wooden stockade, translates it. In 1573 the community received three bells to mark its founding; one survives in the main church.

The ruins came to light in 1740, when the priest Antonio Solís found them, and explorers followed over the next century. Palenque was declared a villa in 1813 and later headed its own department. A railway link to the Gulf arrived in the late 1800s, an airfield in 1931, and city status in 1972. In 1951 Alberto Ruz Lhuillier discovered the tomb of Pakal, and the site has since become one of the main attractions in Chiapas and the heart of the local economy.