Mexico Guide
Chiapas and Tabasco
Palenque
Set in thick jungle buzzing with insects, the ancient Maya ruins of Palenque offer a striking contrast to the modern town of the same name, one of the most unattractive in Chiapas. With its traffic-choked highway and uninspiring zócalo, it holds little intrinsic interest to visitors and is best viewed simply as a base for exploring the ruins and the waterfalls in the nearby hills. Alternatively, since there are a number of cabañas near the ruins, you may prefer not to stay in town at all: the Maya city, just 9km to the southwest, is a hauntingly beautiful world apart. Strongly linked to the lost cities of Guatemala, it maintained its own distinctive style, and though it once occupied a vast area, the section that's visible today is not large – you can see everything in a morning. The site, now a national park, was discovered by the priest Antonio Solís in 1790 and occupies the top of an escarpment marking the northern limit of the Chiapas highlands.