Yaxchilán Archeological Site

Where We Stayed

We based ourselves at Palenque, taking a private guided trip to this site and Bonampak near the Guatemalan border.   To reach this site you travel about 10 miles from Palenque along a recently improved road, then down 10 miles of very bad road, and finally 15 miles downriver by launch.  It can also be reached by small plane. If you want to see both sites, a two-day trip with overnight camping in the jungle is recommended.    It was the closest thing to an Indiana Jones adventure that we experienced.

About the Site

The city was most influential around 700 AD, with two famous kings, Shield-Jaguar and his son Bird-Jaguar.  The site has a large number of excellently preserved stelae, and many buildings with ornate carvings.  A guide is necessary for this site since it is widely spread and remote.  The site has lots of wildlife; bats, monkeys and birds abound.   Climbing in some locations is treacherous, but worth it.

What's There

Click on any image to see it full size.

	The last leg of the trip to the site is along the Usumacinta river which runs along the Mexico/Guatemala border.
	One of the ornate carvings on the hieroglyphic stairs showing the king dressed as a ball-player and the rubber ball containing a sacrificial victim rolling down the pyramid steps.
	Lacandón legend has it that when the head of this statue is replaced upon its shoulders, the end of the world will come. (p.s. the head is in the next room)
	One of the masks on a building edifice.
	A well-preserved stela showing a Maya ruler and a monkey god.
	A beautiful stela showing Bird-Jaguar's mother, Lady Eveningstar, who has called up a vision experience.  The back side of this stela (only visible through a mirror reflection) shows Lady Eveningstar, wife of Shield-Jaguar, performing a blood-letting  ritual.  She pierced her tongue and ran a rope with thorns through it, collecting the blood in a bowl on shreds of bark paper which were then burned in sacrifice with copal (a type of incense made from tree resin).
	This palace on a hill has beautiful carvings on its face, walls, lintels, and ceilings of the rooms.  You can also see an elaborate roof comb.

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