18 



COPAN. 



The lines on the plan are more regular than those presented to the eye at the ruins, 

 as they have been laid down without showing the masses of fallen stones and debris. 

 This, however, was not done by guesswork, but by moving the displaced stones at 

 intervals and thus ascertaining the original limits of the slopes and stairways. 



The mass of terraces and pyramidal foundations is built up of a rubble of rough 

 blocks of stone and mud, bound together, in the course of erection, with internal 

 upright walls of faced stone and horizontal layers of cement. The outer surfaces were 

 always covered with a casing of well-worked stone, in many parts elaborately sculptured, 

 and the whole was probably faced with a coating of plaster ornamentally coloured, of 

 which some traces can still be found. 



Phntoprawvirc Goupil A ImpBousnod-Valai 



Temple at Tikal, partly restored. 



The sections (Plate II.) give some idea of the mass of masonry which has been raised 

 from the plain. On the pyramidal foundations the worked stone casing is usually 



