19G 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



Panorama of Tuloom, looking eastward toward the sea.— The city as it might have appeared some five 

 liundrcd years ago, if viewed from an aeroplane. Such a view today, however, would show only the 

 unbroken" top of the dense tropical forest in which the crumbling buildings now lie buried. The enclosure 

 comprises about twenty-two acres, wherein are scattered a score of temples. The chief sanctuary, at once 

 the religious and architectural center of the city, dominates the entire space, other buildings being grouped 

 to accentuate further its importance 



The ruins of Tuloom are located on a 

 Ijluff overlooking the Caribbean Sea. 

 The principal buildings — probably the 

 civic and religious center of the city — 

 are surrounded by a wall. The wall 

 forms three sides of the enclosure, the 

 fourth side being the precipitous and 

 in many places unscalable bluff front- 

 ing on the sea. The area within the 

 walls is fifteen hundred feet long 

 (north and south), and six hundred 

 and fifty feet wide (east and west). 

 It comprises about twenty-two acres, 

 and is now completely overgrown with 

 a dense tropical bush, which hides one 

 building from another. 



The wall is an interesting and almost 

 unique feature, there being but one or 

 two others known in all Maya cities.^ 

 Jt is rudely constructed of unsquared 



-' Mayapan in northern Yucatan was a walled 

 city. Possibly Tenampua, Honduras, and Santa 

 Cruz Quiche, Guatemala, may have had defensive 

 walls, although nothing so extensive as those at 

 Tuloom and Mayapan. 



stones, and is of varying thickness and 

 height owing to the rolling nature of 

 the ground. The top is generally level, 

 and sufficiently wide, in places, for four 

 men to walk abreast. The average 

 height is from ten to fifteen feet. The 

 three sides are pierced by narrow pas- 

 sages, the one toward the eastern end 

 of the north wall having an offset in it, 

 which must greatly have facilitated its 

 defense. 



The two corners are surmounted by 

 small towers twelve feet square, each 

 containing a single room entered by 

 three doorways. Against the back in 

 each is a small altar. This wall, the 

 most extensive construction at Tuloom, 

 has given rise to much speculation. 

 What was its function? Was it built 

 for defense or to enclose a sacred pre- 

 cinct? Both explanations have some- 

 thing in their favor, but a combination 

 of the two probably more nearly ex- 

 plains its function. While built proba- 



