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Three temples were built to read like a book in three parts
The Cross Complex was built by Kan-Bahlum, who reigned from 684 to 702 AD, to mark his rise to the throne after the death of Pacal the Great. One purpose was to house panels recording his ancestral history, his accession and the divine origin of his lineage. The three temples are the only structures in the Maya realm that play the role of a Maya codex in three parts: moving from temple to temple, the history reads like a book.
World Tree
The cross is a World Tree, and two figures show one king at two ages
The cross motif gave the temples their names, but in reality the cross represents the World Tree, which in Maya mythology stands at the center of the world. Inside the Temple of the Cross, bas-reliefs show two figures. At first they were taken for Pakal and his son. Today both are believed to be Kan Bahlum: one in his youth at a ritual of passage, the other at adulthood, at his accession. Between them stands the Ceiba, the World Tree.
The mountain
The temples stand at the foot of a mountain the Maya held sacred
The complex is at the bottom of the mountain Yehmal K'uk' Lakam Witz, the Great Mountain of the Descending Quetzal. The Maya considered it sacred because of its many natural springs, which feed the Otulum River, the principal water source of the city. The temples are built of limestone. According to accounts from the 16th century, they were covered in stucco and decorated with blue and red paint.
1567
It was abandoned and forgotten, and first described in 1567
When the Spanish arrived in the 16th century, Palenque had been abandoned and forgotten by the Maya of the region. In 1567 Father Pedro Lorenzo de la Nada was the first European to study and publish a description of the ruins, which he named Palenque. Excavation and restoration of the Cross Complex did not begin until 1940. In 1993 archaeologists found an offering of more than 100 incense burners inside the Temple of the Cross.
100+incense burners found in an offering in 1993
Day 5, afternoon
It comes after The Palace.
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The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Temple of the Cross Complex, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.