Pakal the Great Becomes King of Palenque
K'inich Janaab' Pakal, known to history as Pakal the Great, became ruler of Palenque in 615 CE at the age of twelve. His reign of 68 years — one of the longest of any ruler in the ancient world — transformed Palenque from a minor center into a significant regional power. The palace complex he built, with its distinctive tower and elaborately stuccoed portrait reliefs, still dominates the site. Pakal's most enduring monument is the Temple of the Inscriptions, a nine-level pyramid containing his funerary crypt deep within its base. Discovered by Alberto Ruz Lhuillier in 1952, the tomb contained Pakal's skeletal remains adorned with a magnificent jade mosaic death mask. The sarcophagus lid depicts Pakal at the moment of death descending into the underworld along the World Tree, a cosmogram of Maya beliefs about death and resurrection. Pakal's sons Kan Bahlam II and K'an Joy Chitam II continued his building program after his death in 683, completing the Temple of the Inscriptions and adding the celebrated Cross Group temples.
- Year: 615 CE
- Category: Political
