PALENQUE. 11 



The upper end of the aqueduct is no longer visible, as it has been closed up with 

 the drift of gravel and stones, and through this obstruction the water percolates when 

 the stream is low, but after a heavy shower, when the stream rises rapidly, most of the 

 water finds its way along a surface channel on the floor of the plaza and falls into the 

 main channel again at the lower mouth of the aqueduct. 



A large stone which projects from the wall at this northern outlet is carved in the 

 shape of an alligator's head. 



In describing the ruins it is convenient to have names by which to identify the 

 different buildings, and those names have been retained which are in common use 

 amongst the villagers of Santo Domingo, and have been previously used in descriptions 

 by Stephens and other travellers. It is for this reason that the group of buildings 

 about to be described is called the Palace, and not from any belief on my part that it 

 was used as a royal residence. 



Detailed Description of the Principal Structures. 

 The Palace. (Plan and Sections on Plates III. and IV.) 



The so-called Palace is in reality a group of buildings, probably temples, originally 

 distinct one from the other, but all raised on a common foundation mound. This 

 foundation mound, which may in itself be composite in character, is not in shape a 

 rectangular parallelogram as figured by Waldeck and Stephens, but an irregular 

 oblong, measuring roughly about 340 feet long by 260 feet wide. As the ground on 

 which this foundation stands slopes down towards the north, the mound is higher at 

 that end. The buildings on the top of this mound were raised again on secondary 

 foundations and stand at different levels, and were in all probability built at different 

 periods, but the later additions to the earlier buildings and the roofing over of passages 

 between them has to some extent welded the whole mass together. 



The sides of the foundation mound are so deeply covered with fallen stones and 

 earth that there is difficulty in ascertaining their original shape and condition, but by 

 careful examination certain features can be made out, although they are not sufficiently 

 distinct for embodiment in the Plan on Plate III. The east slope is divided into three 

 steps by surface walls with narrow terraces between them. On the northern half of 

 this face the walls are parallel to one another, but towards the south the terraces 

 between the walls become gradually narrower, and the whole face of the foundation 



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