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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



beyond. At present the rooms are not at all roofed over. On each side 

 of the central entrance is a hole in the wall from which an idol has 

 been removed. The court in front of the steps is of a concrete like 

 that found on Monte Alban. Monoliths like the one in the foreground 

 are fairly numerous. Another view of a court with buildings arranged 

 about it is shown in Fig. 5. 



The rooms of the buildings surrounding the courts are still very 

 beautiful. Among these, the Hall of Mosaics (Fig. G) seems to be the 

 best preserved. If these long, narrow halls were ever covered by any 

 heavy roof, the ventilation must have been bad, for even in their present 

 open condition they are hot enough on a warm clay. 



Fig. 9. The Stones above ti.e Entrances are very large. 



Another hall, considerably wider and with a row of six huge mono- 

 liths in the center, is called the Hall of the Monoliths (Fig. 7). These 

 monoliths, which are about twelve feet high, seem to have supported 

 some kind of a roof, and, judging from their strength, the roof must 

 have been something more than cloth or palm leaves. The walls have 

 no mosaic ornamentation, but seem to have been completely covered 

 by a hard, thin coat of cement or plaster, which was painted a dark 

 red. Just beyond the second monolith one sees in the wall a niche 

 which may have contained an idol. 



A well-preserved corner is shown in the following view (Fig. 8). 

 Since the masonry has begun to crack, steel beams have recently been 



