EUINS OF IXKUN. 21 



UINS OF IXKUN*. 



(Plates LXVII.-LXIX.) 



The ruins of Ixkun are situated in the forest country of the Province of Peten in 

 (approximately) lat. 16° 35' N., and long. 89° 34' W., about six miles from the village 

 of Dolores f. 



I reached Dolores in March 1887, after a rough journey through the forest from 

 Cajabon ; and although I had been told about Ixkun some years before by the Jefe 

 Politico of Peten, I was surprised to find that very few of the villagers knew of the 

 existence of the ruins, and it was some time before anyone could be found to guide me 

 to the site. 



The small plain on which the ruins stand is almost surrounded by low rouo-h 

 limestone hills, and although the forest is too thick to enable one to speak with 

 anything like certainty, I do not think the buildings extend beyond the area of the 

 plain. The plan of the ruins is given on Plate LXVII. It could not have been a 

 town of very great importance, as the buildings are small and the masonry is of an 

 inferior class, but the sculptured monoliths and hieroglyphic inscriptions show that it 

 must have belonged to a good period. 



The foundations on which the buildings were raised vary in height from 5 to 50 feet, 

 and are composed of rough irregular blocks and slabs of soft limestone ; the interstices 

 were probably filled up with mud, and the surface faced with cement, but the cement 

 facing has almost entirely disappeared, and the mud has been washed out by tropical 

 rains, so that now the foundations present the appearance of rough heaps of unworked 

 stone. At the south end of the plain is a natural hill which has been partly terraced, 

 and was probably ascended on the north side by a stone stairway; on the top of it are 

 two foundations supporting the remains of stone houses. From the foot of this hill a 

 sort of roadway, with the remains of a low wall on either side, runs to the principal 

 group of buildings, and is continued on the other side of it to a low hill on which the 

 remains of a few other buildings were found. 



I made an excavation on the summit of the mound marked X in the plan, that 

 disclosed the remains of a house or temple, of which a ground-plan is given. Only 

 two walls could be found, but there was almost certainly an outer chamber, which is 



* Some of the following descriptions hare already been printed in ' A Glimpse at Guatemala,' published 

 by John Murray, 1899. 



t By an unfortunate oversight the ruins of Ixkun are placed in the map (Plate I. Tol. II.) about twelve 

 miles too far towards the N.N.W. 



