Palenque is a Classic Period Maya site, located 8 km from the modern town of Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico. It was occupied for several hundred years, from 400 to 800 A.D. The hieroglyphic inscriptions found at Palenque were the inspiration for the modern epigraphic understanding of the ancient Maya writing system. These inscriptions tell the dynastic history of a series of rulers. The most famous of these rulers is Pakal, who is buried in a sarcophagus in a chamber below the Temple of the Inscriptions.