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Cruising Active Transport
We left San Francisco on September 7th 2008 and are off to see the world in our Tayana 37 Pilot House cutter.
Active Transport's Photos - Palenque
Photos 1 to 15 of 18 | Cruising Active Transport (Main)
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This pyramid is the first thing your see as you enter the park. It contained the tomb of Pacal who ruled Palenque for over 80 years. Like most Mayan royalty, Pacal had a birth defect where one leg was shorter than the other. His tomb is not accessable to visitors any more but his funereal mask is on display in the museum of Anthrology in Mexico City and there is an excellent reproduction of his sarcophagus and burial chamber in the museum at Palenque.
the type of stone structure on top of this building are said to have functioned as billboards. They were not so much intended to advertise as to proclaim important things about the ruling elite. There is no record of the lives of the common people in Mayan cities, only the details of the lives of the ruling class were recorded.
The archeologists say that structures like this were the foundations for buildings constructed of perishable materials (i.e., wood). Walking through these structures give you a good idea of the dimensions of the spaces that the Mayan elite lived in.
High ceilings are impressive. That seems to be an idea that shows up many times in architecture. The stone age Mayan
This shot shows the sort of decoration that the rulers used on their own dwellings.
The Mayan written language is now known to be a combination of pictographic writing (like the Egyptian hieroglyphics) and a phonetic language. Couple with current knowledge about the Mayan counting system allows accurate correlations between Mayan The and Gregorian calendars.
The top of this tower is a restoration. Nobody told us the rational used in its design.
Two rivers flow through Palenque and the Mayan
This is the ball court at Palenque. It is intersting to contrast it with the ball court at chichenitza which was so much larger that it is hard to understand how people were able to score. The hoops are missing here but their position can be seen.
Here is Salvatore starting his lecture about the Mayan counting sytem (base 20). John asked him to explain it and he quickly launched into a half hour lecture on the subject.
Salvatore explained the relatinship between the Mayan calendar and the number of step on the side of a Mayan pyramid and how all of this tied into the Mayan view of man
After the official tour several of us engaged another guide to take us on a jungle tour around the excavated site. As we walked through the jungle it became obvious that we were walking on the stones of un-excavated ruins. Only about 2% of the city has been excavated.
Our jungle tour included demonstrations of things like native pigments. Here our guide demonstrates how a tiny bit on vegitation can make a lof of color.
More un-excavated ruins showing through the jungle. IT is easy to see how the jungle growth destroys the structures.
Part of our jungle tour included tasing various native foods that were essential to the Mayan diet. Here Shawn is reacting to his first tast of termites (he says they taste like wood).
 
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