Tonina
How to get there:
Chiapas is a state that is located in the southeast of the Mexican republic, bordered by Tabasco, Oaxaca, Veracruz, the
Pacific Ocean, and the republic of Guatemala. Situated in the east central part of the state, the city of Ocosingo is found,
to which you arrive using highway 199. The archaeological site is located only 10 kilometers from this city, accessing a
dirt road.
From San Cristobal de las Casas, 85 kilometers separates Tonina, in a sacred space, constituted in an artificial mountain
of seven platforms on a calcareous hill that overlooks the valley. Tonina lived its greatness between the VI century A.D.
and the beginning of the X, and was a military power, which as testimonial, shows this by stucco and stone prisoners
figures. Its most important Governor was Tzots Choj, "bat tiger". In Tonina in 909, they wrote the last Maya inscription
of the classic era.
To this site, you arrive through the ball court of the prisoners, one of the largest in its time, situated on the great platform,
where the altar of the sacrifices is raised and, the ball court of the Katunes begins, next to which, there are many
sculptures. The palace of the infraworld is hidden on the third platform, while, on the fourth, is the palace of the Grecian
frets and of the war, whose facade is composed of four spiraled, staired frets.
On the talus of the sixth platform is the mural of the four suns, a special codex made of stucco that represents the myth of
the four cosmogonic eras which the world goes through. In it, the suns of each cycle are represented by human heads
that are falling. Outstanding is the representation of the God of Death that holds in its hands, the head of a decapitated
person. Also, on the sixth platform, is the temple of the monster of the earth, devouring a solar sphere of stone. This
temple is oriented in accord with the sun’s movements in winter and spring. Last, on the seventh platform are the temples
of the prisoners and of the fuming mirror, the main one on the most elevated point, the highest of
Mesoamerica.