Ceiba trees [Ceiba pentranda] are common to Mesoamerica. Called Yaxche [first tree] in Maya, they are very tall, sometimes fifty meters high, and are very beautiful and awe-inspiring.
The ceiba tree is sacred in Maya cosmology because it serves as the central axis of the universe. For instance, the justly famous sarcophagus lid on top of the tomb of K'inich Janaab' Pakal I [ b. 635 AD, d. 702 AD] under the Temple of the Inscriptions at the Palenque site shows a ceiba tree growing from the offering plate. That ceiba tree is the pathway that King Pakal's soul will travel from the underworld to the heavens.
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