166 APPENDIX. 



that the highest of them is not more than one and a-half varas above ground ; 

 others are scarcely visible, the ranges to which they belong being interrupted. 

 The diameter of these columns is precisely alike ; they resemble each other exactly, 

 and are so well turned into a cylindrical shape, that they seemed to me of better 

 workmanship than those now made use of at Bogota ; they form, by their light- 

 ness and elegance, a striking contrast with the thirteen enormous fragments men- 

 tioned above. 



" It is impossible to affirm that the edifice in question was only forty -five varas 

 long and twenty-two broad ; because, in this space, the columns touch each other. 

 Over the whole extent of the place, which covers a considerable surface, there 

 are scattered numerous fragments of columns, as also of other stones, which 

 appear to have been wrought on one of their faces. At a distance of one hundred 

 varas, I also found a spot covered with brambles and a considerable number of 

 stones, which, from a cursory examination, I concluded to have been wrought. 

 The columns which remain sunk in the ground are about twenty-nine in number. 



" In all that I saw, I observed no trace of mortar, lime, or any other cement. 

 By taking up some of these columns, some may perhaps be found. 



" The examination of these vestiges made a deep impression upon me ; and I 

 became convinced that the territory which contains them, and which is about two 

 miles in extent, must have been occupied by a large city, and as I conclude, by a 

 nation much more ancient than the Muyscas. 



" The ignorance which has always reigned in the province of Tunja, explains 

 the little attention shown to monuments so interesting, and so worthy of being 

 studied. The inhabitants of the country have alone been acquainted with them 

 up to the present time ; and although not comparable in importance and grandeur 

 to those which have been discovered in Guatemala and Yucatan, they nevertheless 

 attest the existence of ancient populations already far advanced in civilization." 



Monuments analogous to those here described are found on the shores of Lake 

 Titicaca, in Peru. Their origin is lost in obscurity, and they are supposed, by 

 M. D'Orbigny, who has carefully investigated and given the world drawings of 

 them, to have been the work of a race anterior to the Incas ; denoting, perhaps, 

 a more advanced civilization than the monuments of Palenque. They have been 

 described by a number of the early writers, commencing with Pedro de Ceica, one 

 of the followers of Pizarro. M. D'Orbigny speaks of them as follows : " These 

 monuments consist of a mound raised nearly a hundred feet, surrounded with 

 pillars ; of temples from six to twelve hundred feet in length, opening precisely 

 toward the east, and adorned with colossal angular columns ; of porticoes of a 

 single stone, covered with reliefs of skilful execution, though of rude design, dis- 

 playing symbolical representations of the sun, and the condor, his messenger ; of 

 basaltic statues loaded with bas-reliefs, in which the design of the carved head is 

 half Egyptian ; and lastly, of the interior of a palace formed of enormous blocks of 

 rock completely hewn, whose dimensions are often twenty-one feet in length, 

 twelve in breadth, and six in thickness. In the temples and palaces, the portals 

 are not inclined, as among those of the Incas, but perpendicular ; and their vast 



