ARCHITECTURE. 123 
numerous recesses in the front, deserve a passing notice, on account of the 
quaintness of their exterior, whilst their details are uninteresting. 
The most important among the ruins is that of the residence of the 
sovereign, besides being in the best state of preservation. It stands on two 
pyramids placed one upon the other. The lower one is 600 steps in length 
and breadth, and has a platform planted with trees, and having several 
buildings on it. At the south-east corner of this platform there is a row 
of 18 small cylindrical pillars, occupying a space of about 100 feet in length. 
They are about 4 feet in height, by 18 inches in diameter, and their form 
seems to indicate that columns were not unknown to the people of 
those countries. On this platform rises the pyramid represented in jig. 4, 
on whose summit is the edifice termed the House of the Ruler, which is 
much in the same condition in which it was left by its former occupants. 
It is entirely of stone, without any ornament up to the main cornice. The 
latter, however, is decorated with surpassing richness, as may be inferred 
from our jig. 5, which represents the corner of the same, whilst jig. 55 
gives the figure contained in the ornament on a somewhat larger scale. 
The proportions of this building exhibit a degree of symmetrical grandeur 
so thoroughly in accordance with the strictest rules of art, that it becomes 
difficult to credit that this is the work of a nation to whom the greatest 
ignorance in matters of art is usually attributed. Intelligent and veracious 
travellers class the ruins of Uxmal with the very best monuments of Egypt. 
A remarkable circumstance in the House of the Ruler is the fact, that whilst 
the whole structure is of stone, all the lintels are of iron wood 8 to 9 feet long, 
18 to 20 inches broad, and 12 to 14 feet thick, and that they have been 
burdened unhesitatingly with the weight of a wall 12 to 16 feet high, and 4 
feet thick. The only probable explanation of this circumstance is, that the 
wood has been introduced as a great curiosity of immense costliness, owing 
to its scarcity, and the difficulty attending its transportation to the spot. 
The floors and ceilings are constructed of quadrangular stone slabs. No 
trace of arching is found, and the interior of the rooms is entirely without 
decoration. An ornament often repeated in the sculptures of the cornice is 
a death’s head, with large extended wings and projecting teeth (jig. 5, top). 
It is two feet broad, and anchored in the wall. Another prominent feature 
of the cornice is the mosaic-like sculpture visible at a (fig. 5), whose effect 
is very pleasing. 
The opinions as to the period when these monuments were probably 
erected vary greatly. Lord Kingsborough dates the civilization of Central 
America from an alleged migration of the Jews before the Egyptian 
captivity. Dupaix holds the American monuments to be antediluvian. 
Stephens considers them to be of comparatively recent date, that is to say, 
little before the Christian era. Waldeck, however, is of opinion that the 
civilization of Guatemala which called forth these monuments is much more 
remote than the settlement of the Aztecs in Anahuac, and, indeed, the 
oldest traditions of the aborigines make mention of these structures, which 
therefore perhaps may be contemporary with those of Egypt. 
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