Mayan King Pakal. Reigned from 615 to 683 AD, during the golden age of Mayan expansion. Credited with constructing most of what is now called Palenque ruins, including the giant Temple of the Inscriptions. In 1952 archaeologist Alberto Ruz Lhuillier discovered Pakal's sarcophagus deep inside the temple, down a hidden staircase. Several seated skeletons found around him are assumed to be ritual sacrificial victims. The sarcophagus lid gained brief fame after Erich von Daniken proposed that it depicted an astronaut in a space capsule. Pakal's bones and burial artifacts are now housed in the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City. Lhuillier, who excavated the site during the 40's and 50's, is buried in the ruins, near the park entrance.
Mayan King Pakal. Reigned from 615 to 683 AD, during the golden age of Mayan expansion. Credited with constructing most of what is now called Palenque ruins, including the giant Temple of the Inscriptions. In 1952 archaeologist Alberto Ruz Lhuillier discovered Pakal's sarcophagus deep inside the temple, down a hidden staircase. Several seated skeletons found around him are assumed to be ritual sacrificial victims. The sarcophagus lid gained brief fame after Erich von Daniken proposed that it depicted an astronaut in a space capsule. Pakal's bones and burial artifacts are now housed in the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City. Lhuillier, who excavated the site during the 40's and 50's, is buried in the ruins, near the park entrance.
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