"Toniná, meaning “house of stone” in the Tzeltal language, was originally called Po or Popo in Classic Maya texts.

The city is located at an altitude of 800 to 900 metres above mean sea level in the Chiapas highlands of southern Mexico, only 40 miles from the rival Maya city of Palenque. The two cities were often engaged in sporadic conflict, with Toniná emerging as the dominant polity in the western Maya lands.

Toniná was first inhabited during the Early Classic Period, with most of the major construction taking place between the 6th and 9th centuries AD. The city consists of temple-pyramids set on a series of terraces above a central platform, several ball courts, palaces, and over 100 carved monuments."