Palenque

February 27, 2009

The ruins at the ancient city of Palenque are absolutely beautiful. The mountainous terrain and the enhanced vertical dimensions to the ruin give this city a truly unique look. Stairs are steeper. Conditions of the structures are better, and the architecture is more sophisticated.

For example, aqueducts drain the bases of structures protecting the foundations. The system works to stabilize the ruins to this day.

Original wood lentils are of – as called in the vernacular – Bullet Tree (for its hardness). High silica content makes the wood age like concrete, impervious to many insects. Many of these lentils have lasted in the ruins over 1,500 years

One pyramid was found to contain the remains of a woman given one of the most elaborate burials known. She was laid in a solid sarcophagus with a 2 ton stone lid. Her remains were decorated with jade and other precious stones and covered in the brightest of red cinnabar. The sarcophagus and lid are still deep within the pyramid and are still stained a brilliant red inside.

Curiously, geneticists have found that she is not anywhere on the royal family tree! No one knows how she earned such a rich burial.
Another pyramid was topped with the royal family's residence. The home included porches, patios and a private courtyard. Our tour guide took us into many rooms hallways, and interior stairways. Surprisingly enough, we found a bathroom complete with a sanitary drain. Yes, the family of the Ruler indeed had indoor plumbing. Today water flows into the drain for the bathroom and the water still flows out – keeping the now-unused facility clean. Archaeologists and engineers as yet haven't figured out where the water comes from, or where the water goes. Dye tests do prove that it doesn't pollute any of the surrounding aqueducts Rarely do tourists get to see Mayan architecture so intimately.

Mayan arches work on a different principal than roman arches. No keystone is used, and the arch never requires buttressing. To envision how it works, imagine two pop bottles balanced upside down next to one another (but not necessarily touching). See the “negative space” between the necks of the two bottles? Extend each bottle as the cross-section of two parallel walls. That makes the space between the walls into a room with a vaulted ceiling. A simple narrow stone “lid” placed on top closes the space. Both sides of each wall thicken above head-height. The wall remains balanced and the the weight always transfers straight down! Columns and lentils form patios, while above head-height each half-vault is kept in balance. Unlike a Roman arch, neither side relies on the other to stand. even if one side of a room fails the other side remains intact.

Mayans were masters at mortaring and stuccoing. Their cement for mortar and stucco was made by burning and crushing limestone. A pure white stucco was the product. In places where water incursion hasn't happened some fabulous stucco walls still exist. Some protected walls still bear their stucco coatings, frescoes and reliefs. Unfortunately, water over thousands of years will leach the calcium from the stucco leaving nothing but dust - and the original structural stonework.

Worthy of note, the Mexican white-stucco tradition far-predates the Spanish. The Maya {and other Mexican cultures even used the technique not only for homes but to pave roads! Rubble stone ballast was laid to stabilize roadways and the surface was paved with stucco. There were thousands of miles of these roads. Some small sections of these paved Mayan roads called “sac bé” (white road) exist today.

So what eventually brings a Mayan wall down?

Plants... As tree roots wrap around stones and the tree eventually falls the stones are taken down. One saving grace is that the trees leave rootlets and drop leaves which become topsoil. The layer can grow at a rate of about a half centimeter per year, so eventually the substructures are protected by the same vegetation.