GREAT TERRACE AND BUILDING. 27 



as much in the other direction ; but it was so rough, 

 broken, and overgrown, that we did not attempt to 

 measure it. 



On this great platform was the building of which 

 the Indian had told us ; I had it cleared, and Mr. 

 Catherwood drew it the next day, as it appears in 

 the engraving opposite. It measures one hundred 

 and seventeen feet in front, and eighty-four feet 

 deep, and contains sixteen apartments, of which 

 those in front, five in number, are best preserved. 

 That in the centre has three doorways. It is twen- 

 ty-seven feet six inches long, by only seven feet six 

 inches wide, and communicates by a single door- 

 way with a back room eighteen feet long and five 

 feet six inches wide. This room is raised two feet 

 six inches above the one in front, and has steps to 

 ascend. Along the bottom of the front room, as 

 high as the sill of the door, is a row of small col- 

 umns, thirty-eight in number, attached to the wall. 



In several places the great platform is strewed 

 with ruins, and probably other buildings lie buried in 

 the woods, but without guides or any clew whatev- 

 er, we did not attempt to look for them. 



Such, so far as we were able to discover them, 

 are the ruins of Zayi, the name of which, to the 

 time of our visit, had never been uttered among civ- 

 ilized men, and, but for the notoriety connected with 

 our movements, would probably be unknown at this 

 day in the capital of Yucatan. Our first accounts 

 of them were from the cura Carillo, who, on the 



