Ancient Mayan Astronaut?

Information from Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia:

"Pacal ascended the throne at age 12 on July 29, 615, and lived to the age of 80. The name Pacal aka Pakal means "shield" in the Maya language. Pacal saw expansion of Palenque's power in the western part of the Maya states, and initiated a building program at his capital that produced some of Maya civilization's finest art and architecture. Pacal was buried within the Temple of Inscriptions.


Though Palenque had been examined by archaeologists before, the secret to opening his tomb-closed off by a stone slab with stone plugs in the holes, which had until then escaped the attention of archaeologists-was discovered by Mexican archaeologist Alberto Ruz Lhuillier in 1948/49. It took four years to clear the rubble from the stairway leading down to Pacal's tomb, but was finally uncovered in 1952. His skeletal remains were still lying in his coffin, wearing a jade mask and bead necklaces, surrounded by sculptures and stucco reliefs depicting the ruler's transition to divinity and figures from Maya mythology."

Pacal's Sarcophagus has commanded a great deal of attention since its appearance in the 1968 best selling book by Erich von Däniken, "Chariots of the Gods." It has become proof for many who insist that alien astronauts visited the Earth and that they interacted with human beings, and with the Mayans in particular. They say that this image clearly depicts King Pacal as an astronaut, with his hand on the control panel and his foot on the pedal. It has been speculated that he has an oxygen tube in his mouth.

On the other hand, those fluent in Mayan iconography will tell you that this carving is not that of an ancient astronaut, but of the great Mayan ruler, King Pacal, at the moment of his death. He is shown falling through the Mayan equivalent of the Tree of Life into underworld where he will be re-born.

The image below is an outline of the carving from Wikipedia. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

Look at this image straight on as well as from the side and make up your own mind. Whether you see an astronaut or symbolic representation of the cycle of death and rebirth, this is an amazing and wonderful image.

Information from Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia:

Palenque (Bàak' in Modern Maya) was a Maya city state in southern Mexico that flourished in the 7th century. The Palenque ruins date back to 100 BC to its fall around 800 AD. After its decline it was absorbed into the jungle, which is made up of cedar, mahogany, and sapodilla trees, but has been excavated and restored and is now a famous archaeological site attracting thousands of visitors. It is located near the Usumacinta River in the Mexican state of Chiapas, located about 130 km (81 mi) south of Ciudad del Carmen (see map) about 150 m (164 yd) above sea-level. It stays at a humid 26°C (79°F) with roughly 2160 mm (85 in) of rain a year.

Palenque is a medium-sized site, much smaller than such huge sites as Tikal or Copán, but it contains some of the finest architecture, sculpture, roof comb and bas-relief carvings that the Mayas produced. Much of the history of Palenque has been reconstructed from reading the hieroglyphic inscriptions on the many monuments; historians now have a long sequence of the ruling dynasty of Palenque in the 7th century and extensive knowledge of the city-state's rivalry with other states such as Calakmul and Toniná. The most famous ruler of Palenque was Pacal the Great whose tomb has been found and excavated in the Temple of the Inscriptions.

By 2005, the discovered area covered up to 2.5 km² (1 sq mi), but 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.

This controversial carving of King Pacal was found in Paleque's Temple of Inscriptions, depicted below. In order to preserve its condition, the tomb has been closed to the public since 2004.

A replica of this amazing carving is in the Archaeological Museum of Palenque, along with his a replica of his jade mosaic death mask, jeweled skeleton and necklaces.