TEMPLE OF INSCRIPTIONS:
southeastern view
Pacal built the Temple of Inscriptions near the end of his reign. This masterpiece of Mayan architecture served as his final resting place. Artists carved images of Pacal's ancestry around his coffin, which served to legitimize his rule. Pacal's tomb is deep in the temple, located 80 feet down. To reach it the archaeologists had to first discover the stone slab covering the entrance in the floor at the top of the temple, and then empty the rubble from a hidden passage, and descend the narrow, treacherous staircase to his crypt below. Most of the floor space in Pacal's crypt is filled with an elaborately carved, monolithic stone coffin. The coffin is significantly wider than the narrow staircase leading to it. Pacal must have had the whole temple built around his coffin and crypt prior to his death!
|
