624 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



lakes, with bottoms of cemented stones ; and the traces of a very 

 ancient paved road have been found in Yucatan. Charnay found the 

 country in Yucatan covered with ruins from north to south ; and 

 Stephens, about 1840, visited forty-four ruined cities or places, in which 

 remains of buildings were still found, most of which were unknown 

 to white men, even to those inhabiting the country. The remains of 

 Mayapan, the ancient capital of the Mayas, are scattered over a broad 

 plain, and are characterized by a mound sixty feet high with a base a 

 hundred feet square, the summit of which, a stone platform fifteen 

 feet square, was reached by four stairways twenty-five feet wide. 

 Another building is of stone, and circular, and stands on a sloping 

 foundation thirty-five feet high. Near it are two rows of capitals, 

 without columns. 



The ruins of Uxmal are pronounced by Stephens, who explored 

 them thoroughly, worthy to stand side by side with those of Egyptian 

 and Roman art. The most important building, the Casa del Goberna- 

 dor, is three hundred and twenty feet long, and was built of hewed 

 stone laid in mortar or cement, and bore a cornice which was deco- 

 rated all around with " one solid mass of rich, complicated, and elabo- 

 rately sculptured ornaments." It stands on a foundation of three ter- 

 races, altogether forty-two feet high, the lowest of which was five 

 hundred and seventy-five feet long. The remains of Chichen-Itza 

 are similar to those of Uxmal. In one building the walls of the rooms 

 are covered with picture-writing ; and figures of serpents are a fre- 

 quent ornament. At Ake, thirty-six columns, in three parallel rows, 

 are all that remain of a once magnificent structure. 



At Palenque, Captain del Rio found, in 1787, ruins extending 

 seven or eight leagues one way and half a league the other, and visited 

 and described fourteen edifices admirably built of hewed stone. The 

 largest known building is two hundred and twenty-eight feet long, one 

 hundred and eighty wide, and twenty-five feet high, built entirely of 

 hewed stone, laid with admirable precision in excellent mortar, and it 

 stood on a much larger terrraced pyramidal foundation. A corridor 

 nine feet high, and roofed by a pointed arch, went round the building 

 on the outside ; and this was separated from another within of equal 

 width. Other buildings are nearly as remarkable. Tablets, with 

 elegantly carved inscriptions, are plentiful ; and of the sculptured hu- 

 man figures Stephens says that " in justness of proportion and sym- 

 metry they must have approached the Greek models." 



The four palaces, as Dupaix calls them, at Mitla, are said by him 

 to have been " erected with lavish magnificence. . . . They combine 

 the solidity of the works of Egypt with the elegance of those of 

 Greece. But what is most remarkable, interesting, and striking in 

 these monuments," he adds, " and which alone would be sufficient to 

 give them the first rank among all known orders of architecture, is the 

 execution of their mosaic rilievos, very different from plain mosaic, 



