The classical age cities of Palenque and Tikal where ones great Mayan bastions with extraordinary architecture.  This architecture still fascinates modern archaeologies and historians alike. Still much of the architecture in the Mayan cities had the same style and function, but could diverse from town to town. This is the case of Palenque and Tikal. They share much of their buildings like temples, palaces and ball courts. But the main differences are in the subtle things like vault construction, wall thickness, and columns. The greater differences are in region and time. Tikals history runs back to around 350 B.C., while Palenque is founded around 200 A.D. The time gap makes the building differences much clearer. For example the wall thickness in Tikal is a product of early Petén masonry. This type of masonry was heavy and clumsy to work with, it relied on heavy stones and a small cement core. Whiles in Palenque they evolved the technique to be the opposite of that of Tikal, thin stone slabs and a thick cement core.