COPAN. 31 



out. I broke through one of the walls and removed a few of the faced stones, and 

 found nothing but closely-packed rubble behind it. My impression is that these walls 

 were built up merely to give strength to the foundation and guard against landslips, 

 and not to enclose any central chamber. 



It is probably this method of building up walls of faced stone inside the foundations 

 which has led to the belief that what has been called the great river-wall was the 

 original wall of this group of buildings, and was possibly intended for defence. The 

 destructive force of the river, which has washed away so much of the foundations on 

 the east side, has been somewhat checked on meeting these faced walls, and at the 

 present time the exposed surface of the cliff (Plate XX. and Plate III., b), if I may so 

 call it, shows several patches of faced stone wall ; one of them, nearly halfway up the 

 cliff from the level of the river, is about 60 to 70 feet in length and over 10 feet in 

 height. Careful examination shows that the edges of these patches pass in some places 

 under portions of the rubble of stone and mud of which all these foundations and 

 raised terraces are built up. 



Palacio in his description mentions the ' two caves or passages ' the openings of which 

 can be seen on the face of the river-wall, and which have given to the ruins the name 

 of ' Las Ventanas,' or ' the Windows.' The position of one of these passages is marked 

 on the plan with a dotted red line [28-28]. The floor of the passage is level, and the 

 interior is faced with stone, and is just large enough for a man to crawl through. The 

 top of the passage is a little below the level of the court ; it was closed on the land 

 side, and I think not intended again to be opened. A deep pit was dug here * by 

 Colonel Galindo f , shown in the plan, which now gives access to the passage. 



A few feet from the end of this passage, but at a greater depth below the level of 

 the court, is the subterranean vault outlined in red in the plan, which was broken into 

 by Colonel Galindo. The vault and passage do not seem to have had any connection 

 with one another. The following is Galindo's description of his discovery : — 



"Through a gallery scarcely 4 feet high and 2| feet broad J one can crawl from 

 this square through a more elevated part of the temple overhanging the river, and have 

 from the face of the precipice an interesting view. Among many excavations, I made 

 one at the point where this gallery comes out into the square. I first opened into the 

 entrance of the gallery itself, and digging lower down I broke into a sepulchral vault 

 whose floor is 12 feet below the level of the square. It is more than 6 feet high, and 

 10 feet long, and 5£ feet broad, and lies due north and south, according to the compass. 



* Stephens was wrong in saying this pit is faced with stone. 



t Letter (dated Copan, 19th June, 1834) from Colonel Juan Galindo to the editor of the 'Literary Gazette ' 

 of London, printed in ' Literary Gazette ' for 1835, pp. 456, 457. A similar letter printed in the ' Transac- 

 tions of American Antiq. Society,' vol. vi. pp. 545-550. 



X Stephens says 1 foot 11 inches at the bottom and 1 foot at the top, and in this 

 form : — 



I unfortunately overlooked the measurement, hut think Stephens nearer the mark, 

 as there is only just room to crawl through, and it is impossible to turn round in it. 



