Palenque Timeline

In 1773, Don Ramon de Ordoñez y Aguilar examined Palenque and sent a report to the Capitan General in Antigua Guatemala, renewing outside attention to the ruins after a long period of neglect.

A further examination in 1784 concluded that the ruins were of particular interest, prompting colonial authorities to commission a more detailed survey of the site.

Two years after the 1784 examination, surveyor and architect Antonio Bernasconi was sent with a small military force under Colonel Antonio del Río to examine the site in more detail, producing some of the earliest systematic documentation of Palenque.

Draughtsman Luciano Castañeda made more drawings of Palenque in 1807, adding valuable visual records that would later be used in published accounts of the site.

Descriptions of the Ruins of an Ancient City, Discovered near Palenque was published in London in 1822, based on the reports of the last two expeditions together with engravings based on Bernasconi and Castañeda's drawings.

Juan Galindo visited Palenque in 1831 and filed a report with the Central American government, contributing further firsthand observations of the site.

Starting in 1832, Jean-Frédéric Waldeck spent two years at Palenque making numerous drawings, though most of his work was not published until 1866.

Image source: Jean-Frédéric Waldeck

Two more publications appeared in 1834 containing descriptions and drawings of Palenque based on the same earlier sources, spreading knowledge of the ruins across Europe.

The site was visited in 1840 by Patrick Walker and Herbert Caddy on a mission from the governor of British Honduras, part of a wave of renewed interest in the ruins.

Also in 1840, John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood visited Palenque, publishing an illustrated account the following year that was greatly superior to all previous descriptions of the ruins.

Image source: John Lloyd Stephens

Désiré Charnay took the first photographs of Palenque in 1858, pioneering the photographic documentation of the site.

Image source: Désiré Charnay

Désiré Charnay returned to Palenque in 1881–1882, expanding his photographic record of the ruins made two decades earlier.

Alfred Maudslay encamped at the ruins in 1890–1891, took extensive photographs of all the art and inscriptions he could find, made paper and plaster molds of many inscriptions, and produced detailed maps and drawings, setting a high standard for future investigators.

Image source: Alfred Maudslay

Frans Blom of Tulane University made superior maps of both the main site and various previously neglected outlying ruins, and filed a report for the Mexican government recommending work to preserve the ruins.

Image source: Frans Blom

From 1949 through 1952, Alberto Ruz Lhuillier supervised excavations and consolidations of the site for Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), transforming modern understanding of Palenque.

Image source: Alberto Ruz Lhuillier

In 1952, Alberto Ruz Lhuillier removed a stone slab in the floor of the temple superstructure to reveal a passageway leading through a long stairway to Pakal's tomb, becoming the first person to gaze upon Pacal the Great's tomb in over a thousand years.

Image source: Kʼinich Janaabʼ Pakal

Little had been known about the early king B'utz Aj Sak Chiik until 1994, when a tablet was found describing a ritual for the king, shedding light on one of the dynasty's earliest rulers.

Temple XIII contained the Tomb of the Red Queen, an unknown noblewoman possibly the wife of Pakal, whose richly decorated burial chamber was discovered in 1994.

Image source: Tomb of the Red Queen

The existence of certain fossils associated with the region had been known since the 19th century, but they only received significant scientific and archaeological attention starting in the 2000s.

In 2010, Pennsylvania State University researchers Christopher Duffy and Kirk French identified the Piedras Bolas Aqueduct as a pressurized aqueduct, the earliest known in the New World.

In June 2022, archaeologists from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) announced the discovery of a 1,300-year-old nine-inch-tall stucco head statue in a pond, believed to depict a young Hun Hunahpu, the Maya mythological maize god.

In 1973, the first of the very productive Palenque Mesa Redonda (Round Table) conferences was held on the inspiration of Merle Greene Robertson; thereafter leading Mayanists would meet every few years to discuss new findings.

Image source: Merle Greene Robertson

'Palenque National Park' was designated in 1981 by the Mexican government, protecting the archaeological zone and its surrounding rainforest environment.

Image source: Palenque

By 2005, the discovered area covered up to 2.5 km² (0.97 sq mi), yet it is estimated that less than 10% of the total area of the city is explored, leaving more than a thousand structures still covered by jungle.

Palenque received 920,470 visitors in 2017, underscoring its status as one of Mexico's most popular archaeological destinations.