King K’inich Janaab’ Pakal also known as Pacal was a Mayan governor of the Palenque region between the years 615 and 685, a period of advancement and prosperity for its inhabitants. He was most famous for raising the city of Palenque from relative obscurity to great power, his building projects in the city (especially the Temple of the Inscriptions), and his elaborately carved sarcophagus lid which has been interpreted as an ancient astronaut riding on a rocket ship.

The stone Sarcophagus lid of King Pacal produced considerable controversial theories, one is Mainstream scholars believe that the inscriptions talk about King Pacal on a journey to the underworld, but ancient astronaut theorists believe that the king is portrayed at the seat of the controls of a spacecraft and have dubbed him the Palenque astronaut.

Who was Pakal the Great?

Pacal was the son of Lady Sak K’uk who reigned as Queen of Palenque from 612-615 CE. She ruled for three years until her son reached maturity which, at that time, was the age of 12. Pacal assumed the throne of Palenque in 615 CE, and ruled successfully until his death at the age of 80. Pacal almost instantly began building enormous and elaborately worked monuments in order to celebrate both the city’s past and his family’s legitimate claim to rule.

Temple of the Inscriptions:

Temple of the Inscriptions pyramid was constructed in 675 CE and it was built as the tomb of Pacal. The Temple of the Inscriptions is a pyramid with a small building at the top inscribed with the second longest continuous Mayan text yet uncovered in Mesoamerica.

Discovery:

For a century after Palenque was discovered, the pyramid was thought to be a religious center in the city (as the inscriptions were undecipherable) until the Mexican Archaeologist Alberto Ruiz recognized that the walls of the small temple continued down below the floor. He discovered that the platform of the floor had drill holes, which had been sealed by stone plugs, and surmised that the Maya had lowered the floor into place with ropes, perhaps, to seal a royal tomb. Between 1948 and 1952 CE, Ruiz worked with his team, excavating the temple and, finally, discovered the tomb of Pacal the Great. 

Pacal’s Sarcophagus:

The Sarcophagus’ lid measures 3.6×2 meters (12×7 feet) and shows King Pacal sitting in some kind of spacecraft. He is at an angle like modern-day astronauts upon lift-off. He is manipulating some controls. He has some type of breathing apparatus or some type of telescope in front of his face. His feet are on some type of pedal. And you have something that looks like an exhaust with flames.

Taking into account what is known about the Mayan culture and the studies that experts have done over the years, the official interpretation of the tombstone is as follows:

Pakal is seated in the middle, as a young man in the center of the universe. Below him is Sak B’aak Naah or the first centipede of white bones, which represents the Mayan underworld: Xibalbá.

From Pakal’s body emerges a tree, with a two-headed serpent intersecting, dividing the cosmos into its four regions. 

Around the tree it’s possible to see the faces of different deities that accompany him on his journey through the cosmos and right at the top of the tree, the god Itzamná can be seen represented as a quetzal.

The Unofficial Interpretation

However, there is another theory that Pakal is actually sitting in what appears to be a spaceship and that his hands are on the control board.

In addition, next to his nose it is possible to see an artifact that is probably a microphone or something that helps him breathe in space. 

Beneath it, what would be the head of the centipede is actually a turbine from which fire comes out as it advances and which has the cosmos around it, precisely because it is traveling through space.

Although it is a rather unusual theory, there is not enough evidence to prove it correct or disprove it, but the vast majority of the scientific community has dismissed it as far-fetched.

On the other hand, it must not be forgetten that according to Mayan mythology, the gods came down from the heavens and taught them about mathematics, architecture, agriculture and technology. 

Have they taught man to build machines to fly and perhaps travel through space?

More information: https://factsofworld4u.blogspot.com/2017/01/pacals-sarcophagus-ancient-mayan-king.html

https://www.chichenitza.com/blog/pakal-the-great

https://wearemitu.com/wearemitu/culture/maya-civilization-aliens-ufo/