MORGAN. GOVERNOR’S HOUSE AT UXMAL. 259 
equal height on the sides and ends, and terminating in a flat roof. The 
doorways opened upon the platform area or terrace when the building was 
single, and where it was carried around the four sides of an inclosed court 
they opened usually upon the court. As their elevation above the level of 
the surrounding area invested them with the character of fortresses, they 
were defended on the line or edge of the terrace-walls, or, rather, at the head 
of the flight of steps by means of which the summit-level was reached. 
Neither adobe brick, nor rubble masonry, nor timber roofs could withstand 
the tropical climate, with its pouring rains during a portion of the year. 
Stone walls and a vaulted ceiling were indispensable to a permanent struct- 
ure. There were, doubtless, pueblos of timber-framed houses with thatched 
roofs here and there in Yucatan, Chiapas, and Honduras, as there were fur- 
ther south towards the Isthmus; but the prevailing material used was stone, 
as the number of small pueblos in ruins still attest. Upon these elevated 
platforms they enjoyed the same security as the Village Indians of New 
Mexico upon their roof-tops and within the walls of their houses. They 
were also raised above the flight of the mosquitoes and flies, the scourge 
of this hot region. Considering the surrounding conditions, single-storied 
houses upon raised platforms was a natural suggestion, harmonizing with a 
style of architecture, the communal character of which was predetermined 
by their social condition. For the details of this architecture reference 
must be made to published works, which are easily accessible, its general 
features and the principles from which they sprang being the only subjects 
within the scope of this inquiry. 
The front elevation of the Governor’s House at Uxmal, shown in the 
engraving, and which was taken from Stephens’ work, will answer as a 
sample of the whole. It stands upon the upper of three platforms, of 
which the lowest is five hundred and seventy-five feet long, fifteen feet 
broad to the base of the middle platform, and three feet high. The second 
is five hundred and forty-five feet long, two hundred and fifty feet broad 
to the base of the upper platform, and twenty feet high. The third is 
three hundred and sixty feet long, thirty feet broad in front of the 
edifice, and nineteen feet high. The upper one is formed upon the back 
half of the middle platform, of which last Mr. Stephens observes that ‘this 
