i i th i ee 
122 ARCHITECTURE. 
also contained the state treasury, the arsenal, and the offices of state. The 
fourth and fifth divisions were occupied by the wives of the king, every one 
having her own apartments, baths, garden, and every imaginable comfort. 
The sixth and seventh divisions were allotted respectively to the royal 
princes and princesses. No palace of modern times in any civilized country 
would bear a comparison with the sumptuous magnificence of this residence 
of the king of a comparatively savage nation. 
Near Onieies) on the frontier of Yucatan, the ruins of Palenque are of 
especial interest. The ruins of the palace, e which several walls are still 
standing, are not the only ones found there, but there are also ruins of a 
number of private houses from which the ground plan and interior arrange- 
ment of such buildings with these people can be seen, their extreme age 
notwithstanding. The disposition of the plans to these buildings, the 
sculptures, the painting, of which sufficient remains are left for investigation, 
and the grand forms and proportions exhibited throughout, force upon the 
beholder the conviction that these people were deficient neither in civiliza- 
tion nor in practical skill. 
Of equal interest with the ruins of Palenque are those of Uxmal in Yucatan. 
They are the remains of a city which was once 16 miles in circumference, 
and are in better preservation than the ruins of Palenque. Thé name of 
this city cannot be given with certainty. It is supposed, however, to be the 
ancient Majapan. Among its ruins is one called the Dwarf’s House, situated 
onthe platform of a pyramid 224 feet in length and 120 feet broad, and 
containing three rooms. Its exterior is entirely covered with sculptures, which 
are both tastefully grouped and skilfully executed. Among the decorations 
are leopards’ heads, foliated work, and a variety of rich panels; and the 
joints of the masonry are so admirably fitted that they in no instance 
mar the effect of the sculptures, although the figures often extend over four 
or five stones, the building being erected, like all American monuments, 
of much smaller blocks than were employed by the Egyptians in their 
edifices. | 
Another building is said to have been the residence of the virgins of the 
sun, and is therefore even now termed the House of the Nuns. It is situ- 
ated on an artificial substructure 15 feet in height, and occupies a plot of 
ground 80 feet square. The principal entrance is wide, and leads into a 
spacious court. The walls of the buildings, both exteriorly and interiorly, 
are covered with sculptures, the interior being, however, much the richer in 
decoration. /%g. 8 shows part of the front facing the court, and exhibits 
the proportions of the cornices which were introduced in American 
architecture. The lower part of the front is smooth, the upper very rich 
in well executed sculptures, among which are full length figures drawn with 
ease and well proportioned. The middle of the front has two colossal 
intertwined serpents, whose heads rest on the centre cornice, and which 
have caused the occasional designation of the building as the Temple of the 
Two Serpents. 
The house of the Tortoise probably destroyed by an earthquake, and the 
House of the Pigeons, the one named from its shape, the other from 
122 
eres anne aig 
