Page "K'inich Janaab' Pakal" Paragraph 11

The large carved stone sarcophagus lid in the Temple of Inscriptions is a unique piece of Classic Maya art.

Around the edges of the lid is a band with cosmological signs, including those for sun, moon, and star, as well as the heads of six ancestors.

The central image is that of a world tree.

Beneath Pakal are the open jaws of a funeral serpent, a common iconographic representation of entrance into the realm ( s ) of the dead.

The king himself wears the attributes of the Tonsured maize god and is shown in a peculiar posture that may denote rebirth.