CEICHEN ITZA. 



13 



Piste. 



Detailed Description of the Ruins. 



jYo. 1. — The building known as the " Casa de Monjas," or Nunnery (Plate II., No. 1), 

 is the best preserved of the larger buildings at Chichen. (Plan and Section on 

 Plate III. ; Views and Drawings, Plates IV.-XVII.) 



It consists of a solid mass of masonry, which I shall call the basement (coloured 

 blue in the Plan), supporting a range of buildings on which another single-chambered 

 building is superimposed. On the eastern side of the basement is a wing, with rooms 

 opening on the level of the ground (coloured red in Plate III.), the main portion of 

 which measures 61 feet by 45 feet, and is 25 feet high. Three other buildings 

 (a, b, & c, Plate III.), two of them (b & c) in complete ruin, formed three sides of a 

 courtyard to the south of the wing, and two detached structures (d & e, Plate III.) 

 complete the group of buildings. 



The basement is a solid mass of masonry, with slightly sloping sides and rounded 

 corners, 165 feet in length, 89 feet broad, and 35 feet high. This measurement includes 



