Been to Palenque, or dreaming of it?
Join BucketList to rate it, put it on your bucket list, and see where your friends have been. It's free.
22,000+ places in 198 countries to rate and rank
Photo: Ljuba brank at Slovenian Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Former Maya city state in southern Mexico
Palenque, also anciently known in the Itzaʼ language as Lakamha, was a Maya city-state in southern Mexico that perished in the 8th century. The Palenque ruins date from ca. 226 BC to ca. 799 AD. After its decline, it was overgrown by the jungle of cedar, mahogany, and sapodilla trees, but has since been excavated and restored. It is located near the Usumacinta River in the Mexican state of Chiapas, about 130 km (81 mi) south of Ciudad del Carmen, 150 meters (490 ft) above sea level. It is adjacent to the modern town of Palenque, Chiapas. It averages a humid 26 °C (79 °F) with roughly 2,160 millimeters (85 in) of rain a year.
