Chariots of the Gods

The Palenque Lid and the Man at the Controls

The carved stone lid over the tomb of K'inich Janaab Pakal, king of Palenque in Mexico, was found in 1952 deep inside the Temple of the Inscriptions. In Chariots of the Gods? (1968) Erich von Daniken read its central figure as a man at the controls of a rocket. This investigation sets out his reading, the tomb's own inscriptions and the Mayanists' account, and what is still argued.