Tonina is an archaeological zone with abundant remains of the Mayan culture. Its name means, in Tzeltal language, "house of stone" or "great stone houses". Had its heyday during the Late Classic (AD 600-900) when most inscriptions and monuments were made. It is situated in the valley of Ocosingo, which is an area of transition between the Chiapas jungle and forest. Towards the end of the Classic, the Acropolis of Tonina was one of the larger structures of ancient Mexico. It coincided with the splendor of Tikal, Copan and Palenque with which it shares the monsters figures based on land, aquatic deities, celestial birds and dragons from the underworld. Tonina became a major military power, as evidenced by the inscriptions found of prisoners in stone and stucco. Among architectural buildings include the imposing 70-meter pyramid known as The Acropolis, a ball game and countless objects, reliefs and sculptures of excellent quality.

The Acropolis is formed by seven platforms, ten temples and four palaces, almost all interconnected through labyrinthine corridors and stairways. From the base, enormous panels with fretwork that belong to the Palace of War arise. In the sixth platform at the foot of the Temple of the Earth Monster, one of the most important parts of the site seen: the Mural of the Four Eras, dated between 790-840 d. C., which is representing the main Mayan deities framed by the legend of the four suns. You can climb the pyramid through a labyrinth of stairs leading to the Temple of the Smoking Mirror 80 meters over the Great Plaza rises. From there you enter the sacred space for the ball game, with more than 70 meters it was one of the greatest of his time. There in the city a total of 97 buildings located in different sizes and architectural functions (a temple for each of the 13 Mayan gods, residence palaces intended for a mural, among others, and two ball and 38 tombs.

This complex of courtyards, rooms, and stairways is built on multiple levels that are irregular and asymmetrical. The overall effect is that of a ceremonial area with multiple foci instead of a clearly discernible center. It affords beautiful and intriguing perspectives from just about any spot. As early as a.d. 350, Toniná emerged as a dynastic center. In the 7th and 8th centuries, it was locked in a struggle with rival Palenque and, to a lesser degree, with faraway Calakmul. This has led some scholars to see Toniná as more militaristic than its neighbors a sort of Sparta of the Classic Maya.

Toniná’s greatest victory came in 711, when, under the rule of Kan B’alam, it attacked Palenque and captured its king, K’an Joy Chitam, depicted on a stone frieze twisted, his arms bound with rope. But the single most important artifact yet found at Toniná is up around the fifth level of the acropolis a large stucco frieze divided into panels by a feathered framework adorned with the heads of sacrificial victims (displayed upside down) and some rather horrid creatures. The largest figure is a skeletal image holding a decapitated head very vivid and very puzzling. There is actually a stylistic parallel with some murals of the Teotihuacán culture of central Mexico. The other special thing about Toniná is that it holds the distinction of having the last ever date recorded in the long count (a.d. 909), which marks the end of the Classic period.

The towering ceremonial core of Tonina, overlooking a pastoral valley 14km east of Ocosingo, comprises one of the Maya world's most imposing temple complexes. This was the city that brought mighty Palenque to its knees. The year AD 688 saw the inauguration of the Snake Skull-Jaguar Claw dynasty, with ambitious new rulers bent on controlling the region. Palenque was their rival state, and when Tonina captured the Palenque ruler Kan Joy Chitam II in 711, it's likely that he had his head lopped off here. Tonina became known as the Place of the Celestial Captives, because its chambers held the captured rulers of Palenque and other Maya cities, destined for decapitation or to be ransomed for large sums. A recurring image in Tonina sculpture is of captives before decapitation, thrown to the ground with their hands tied. To enter the site, follow the road from the entrance and site museum, which details Tonina's history and contains most of the best artifacts. The road turns to a footpath, crosses a stream and climbs to the broad, flat Gran Plaza. At the south end of the Gran Plaza is the Templo de la Guerra Cosmica (Temple of Cosmic War), with five altars in front of it. Off one side of the plaza is a ball court, inaugurated around AD 780 under the rule of the female regent Smoking Mirror. A decapitation altar stands cheerfully beside it.

To the north rises the ceremonial core of Tonina, a hillside terraced into a number of platforms, rising 80m above the Gran Plaza. At the right-hand end of the steps, rising from the first to the second platform, is the entry to a ritual labyrinth of passages. Higher up on the right-hand side is the Palacio de las Grecas y de la Guerra (Palace of the Grecas and War). The grecas are a band of geometrical decoration forming a zigzag X-shape, possibly representing Quetzalcoatl. To its right is a rambling series of chambers, passages and stairways, believed to have been Tonines administrative headquarters. Higher again is Tonina’s most remark-able sculpture, the Mural de las (nano Eras (Mural of the Pour Eras). Created between AD 790 and 840, this stucco relief of four panels the first, from the left end, has been lost represents the four suns, or four eras of human history. The people of Tonina believed themselves to be living in the fourth sun that of winter, mirrors, the direction north and the end of human life. At the center of each panel is the upside-down head of a decapitated prisoner. Blood spurting from the prisoner's neck forms a ring of feathers and, at the same time, a sun. In one panel, a dancing skeleton holds a decapitated head. To the left of the head is a lord of the underworld, resembling an enormous rodent. Up the next set of steps is the seventh level, with remains of four temples. Behind the second temple from the left, more steps descend into the very narrow Tumba de Treinta Metros (Thirty-Meter Tomb), a slim passageway.

Above here is the acropolis, the abode of Tonina's rulers and site of its eight most important temples four on each of two levels. The right-hand temple on the lower level, the Templo del Monstruo de la Tierra (Temple of the Earth Monster), has Tonina's best-preserved roof comb, built around AD 713. On the topmost level, the tallest temple, the Templo del Espejo Humeante (Temple of the Smoking Mirror), was built by Zots-Choj, who took the throne in AD 842. In that era of the fourth sun and the direction north, Zots-Choj had to raise this, Tonina's northernmost temple, highest of all, which necessitated a large, artificial northeast extension of the hill.