28 PALENQUE. 



The two eastern piers, the east end of the front corridor, and all the front of the 

 roof, except a small portion of the south-west corner, have now fallen away, and almost 

 all trace of ornament on the piers has disappeared. Stephens says: — "The two outer 

 piers contain hieroglyphics, one of the inner piers is fallen, and the other is ornamented 

 with a figure in bas relief but faded and ruined." 



The frieze round the outside of the roof was very richly ornamented in stucco. The 

 designs on the north and west sides were fairly well preserved and are shown in 

 Plate LXVIIL, a and b. y 



Upon the middle ridge of the roof stands a tall superstructure composed of two 

 lattice-like walls enclosing a narrow space open at each end. This lattice-work was 

 doubtless used as the foundation for stucco ornamentation, all trace of which has now 

 disappeared. The space enclosed between these walls is divided halfway up by a 

 stone floor. A line of stepping-stones projects from the inner sides of the walls 

 forming a sort of stairway by which one can pass up through openings in this floor 

 and through an opening in the capstones which lie over the top of the superstructure. 

 From this elevated position a very fine view is obtained over the plain of Tobasco, and 

 the village of Santo Domingo is just visible over the tree-tops to the east-north-east. 

 The stucco covering the inner sides of the walls of the superstructure is still in good 

 condition. 



In the interior of the temple there are three gable-headed doorways through the 

 main wall. The two side doorways are low and the one to the east has had a secondary 

 wall built partly across it. The middle doorway is broad and high, the opening 

 reaching almost to the same height as the top of the vaults of the corridors. The 

 inner corridor is divided into three chambers by two transverse walls. 



Inside the middle chamber, built up against the back wall of the Temple, is the 

 sanctuary. 



The outer walls of the sanctuary are surmounted by a frieze between two projecting 

 cornices, all decorated with stucco ornament. (See Plate LXVTIL, c, d, and e.) 



The wooden lintel which supported the frieze above the broad doorway of the 

 sanctuary has given way and disappeared, and much of the ornamentation of the frieze 

 has fallen with it. 



On each side of the doorway there was formerly a tablet of sculptured stone ; these 

 were removed from their places early in the present century and carried to the village 

 of Santo Domingo, where they can now be seen embedded in the walls of the church *. 

 (See Plates LXIX. to LXXII.) 



* There is some confusion with regard to the sculptured slabs given on Plates LXIX. and LXX. Dupais 

 and Waldeck both ascribe them to the Temple of the Cross. Dupaix must have seen them in place, but before 

 the date of Waldeck's visit they had been moved from their places and carried to a house in the village of 

 Santo Domingo. Stephens, in describing the sanctuary of the Temple of the Cross, says " on each side of the 

 doorway was a tablet of sculptured stone, which, however, has been removed " ; but in giving the drawings 



