HOUSE OF THE NUNS. 



45 



which encompassed nearly all the other ornaments. The 

 other two buildings were about the same size, and almost 

 equally as rich in ornamentation. Fronting the entrance 

 gate was a lofty building, two hundred and sixty-four feet 

 long, standing on a terrace twenty feet high. It was ascended 

 by a grand staircase ninety-five feet wide, flanked on each 

 side by a building with sculptured front, and having three 

 doorways, each leading to an apartment. 



The height of this building to 

 the upper cornice was twenty-five 

 feet. It had thirteen doorways, over 

 each of which rose a perpendicular 

 wall ten feet wide and seventeen feet 

 high, above the cornice. The stair- 

 case was very much in ruins, as in- 

 deed were all the buildings. In one 

 of the wings of this building was seen 

 the curious Maya arch, built without 

 a keystone. ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ 



Near the Casa dc las Monjas was another building, 

 the Casa de his Tortugas, or House of the Turtles, but it 

 was in such a state of ruin that a description was impossible. 

 Away to the southwest lay the range of ruined walls known 

 as the Casa de Palomos, or House of the Pigeons. It 

 was two hundred and forty feet long; the front was very 

 much in ruins, and the apartments filled with the fallen 

 debris. On the roof, running longitudinally along its center, 

 was a range of structures built in pyramidal form, re- 

 sembling some of the old Dutch houses. These were 

 originally nine in number, built of stone, about three feet 

 thick, and had small oblong openings through them. It 

 was from these holes, resembling pigeon houses, that the 

 ^building derived its name. The names of all the buildings 

 were misnomers, given by the Spanish residents and not by 



