The majestic ruins of an ancient Mayan city off the beaten track and surrounded by beautiful mountains and meadows in the Mexican state of Chiapas. Here you will find a huge acropolis with dozens of temples, friezes, steles, statues and even a labyrinth!
The famous pyramid of Kukulkan in Chichen Itza is 24 meters high. The main pyramid of the Misty Mirror in Tonin rises above the level of the Main Square at 71 meters... It is even taller than the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan. Impressive, isn't it?
Tonina is located even further from Palenque, so only a rare tourist arrives here. But in vain! The main building of Tonina impresses with its grandeur - it is a huge acropolis, on seven tiers of which many temples and other structures are built. Personally, all this reminds me of the famous painting "The Tower of Babel" by Pieter Bruegel.
It is curious and unusual that all this beauty is in the whirling of mountains and meadows, where horses and cows peacefully graze.
Tonina's original name is Popo... The city was the capital of the kingdom of the same name. It was an aggressive state that often waged wars with its powerful neighbor Palenque, and as a result, it even won victories over the latter more than once. Almost nothing is known about Tonina's early history; it is believed that those first buildings were buried under newer ones. The earliest date found on Tonina's structures is AD 217. The last one is 909.
On the lower tiers there is Underworld palace, inside which you can walk along the dark corridors of the present maze.
Well-preserved beautiful steles and statues.
