1898-99.] DECIPHERING HIEROGLYPHIC INSCRIPTIONS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 193 
CHAPTER XIII. 
THE INSCRIPTIONS FROM CHICHEN-ITZA: THAT OF THE AKATZEEB. 
Referring to the valuable illustration in his “Incidents of Travel in 
Yucatan,” Mr. Stephens writes: “The plate opposite represents the 
general plan of the ruins of Chichen. This plan is made from bearings 
taken with the compass, and the distances were all measured with a 
line. The buildings are laid down on the plan according to their 
exterior form. All now standing are comprehended, and the whole 
circumference occupied by them is about two miles, which is equal to 
the diameter of two thirds of a mile, though ruined buildings appear 
beyond these limits. By referring to the plan, the reader will perceive 
the position of the hut in which we lived, and, following the path from 
our door through the cattle-yard of the hacienda, at the distance of two 
hundred and fifty yards, he will reach the building represented in the 
plate opposite (the Akatzeeb). It does not stand on an artificial 
terrace, but the earth seems to have been excavated for some distance 
before it, so as to give it elevation of position. It faces the east, and 
measures one hundred and forty-nine feet in front, by forty-eight feet 
deep. The whole exterior is rude, and without ornament of any kind. 
A grand staircase, forty-five feet wide, now entirely in ruins, rises in the 
centre to the roof of the building. On each side of this staircase are 
two doorways ; at each end is a single doorway, and the front facing the 
west has seven. The whole number of apartments is eighteen. The 
west front opens upon a large hollow surface, whether natural or 
artificial it is not easy to say, and, in the centre of this, is one of those 
features before referred to, a solid mass of masonry, forty-four feet by 
thirty-four, standing out from the wall, high as the roof, and correspond- 
ing, in position and dimensions, with the ruined staircase on the eastern 
front. This projection is not necessary for the support of the building ; 
it is not an ornament, but, on the contrary, a deformity ; and whether it 
be really a solid mass, or contain interior chambers, remains to be 
ascertained by the future explorer.” 
“At the south end the doorway opens into a chamber, round which 
hangs a greater and more impenetrable mystery. This chamber is 
nineteen feet wide by eight feet six inches deep, and in the back wall a 
low narrow doorway communicates with another chamber in the rear, 
of the same dimensions, but having its floor one step higher. The lintel 
of this doorway is of stone, and on the soffite,or under part, is sculptured 
