 In the Terminal Classic, this was the largest city in the lower Ulua river valley.Because of its location where the major rivers enter the valley from the south and southwest, Cerro Palenque was in a strategic position where it could have mediated access from the interior of the country to goods produced along the coast, and coming in trade with Belize and Yucatan.The Maya of Yucatan told the Spanish, in the 16th century, that the Ulua River valley was the land of feathers and honey.