Palenque is a major Mayan archaeological site located at the jungle's edge in southeastern Chiapas highlands. It rose from a small regional center in about 500 C.E. to a major Mayan city-state in the Late Classic Period, about 600 C.E. (when my own ancestors were living in mud huts and painting themselves blue). Of all who ruled Palenque, the greatest 
was K'inich Janaab' Pakal, aka Pakal the Great (that's him on the right, here), who succeeded his great-grandmother and his mother to the throne and ruled 
for 68 years until his death in 683 C.E. at age 80. His tomb, enclosed within the Pyramid of the Inscriptions in Palenque, is known as the richest and most elaborate yet found in Mesoamerica. Visitors to Palenque can enter his tomb, where the original massive limestone cover to his sarcophagus still rests underneath a thick etched plexiglas replica of the tomb's vaulted and inscribed ceiling. It is an exquisite and informative restoration. My flash-free photo over here on the left does it absolutely no justice but perhaps it gives an idea of the grandeur.
Palenque's ruins are monumental and extensive, with groups of platforms, 
temples, and palaces surrounding separate plazas. It's impossible for photographs to capture how vast this complex of governmental, ceremonial, residential, and burial structures really is. It takes at least two days to thoroughly explore most of the ruins and visit the on-site museum. The Mayans of Palenque even built channels to divert streams away from the buildings and toward the center of the complex; this aqueduct (on the right) directs water past the palace and eventually rejoins the natural waterway downhill of some residential buildings before culminating in this waterfall and pool suitable for swimming: 
Part 2, soon coming….
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