A prime exam­ple of a Mayan sanc­tu­ary of the clas­si­cal peri­od, Palenque was at its height between AD 500 and 700, when its influ­ence extend­ed through­out the basin of the Usumac­in­ta Riv­er. The ele­gance and crafts­man­ship of the build­ings, as well as the light­ness of the sculpt­ed reliefs with their Mayan mytho­log­i­cal themes, attest to the cre­ative genius of this civ­i­liza­tion.