Day 11: Palenque: Pyramids, Temples, and Jungles...

As our Mexican adventure draws to a close we had one last hurrah yesterday with a five hour drive into the jungle to see the magnificent Mayan ancient city of Palenque. 

Palenque is formed of a series of pyramid structures, a palace, a tower, temples, a ball court, a Mayan hotel(!), buildings where the workers lived, and tombs with colossal burial chambers. 

It is a beautiful place that is still 98% undiscovered. We even saw the archeologists at work. 

In Temple XX they had just discovered an amazing outer burial chamber that is bright red. The dead bodies in the room and everything else in the room were coated in mercury and sulphur. 

Once catalogued they hope to open up the bigger chamber that they have detected beyond.  

Amazing stuff.