AN EXTRAORDINARY EDIFICE. 



303 



upon them, and colossal stones and fragments of 

 sculptm-e at their feet, which it would be impossible 

 to present in detail. 



Passing among these vestiges, we come out upon 

 the camino real, and, crossing it, again enter an open 

 field, containing the extraordinary edifice represent- 

 ed in the plate opposite, which, on first reaching 

 the field of ruins, we rode in on horseback to exam- 

 ine. It consists of two immense parallel walls, each 

 two hundred and seventy-four feet long, thirty feet 

 thick, and one hundred and twenty feet apart. One 

 hundred feet from the northern extremity, facing the 

 open space between the walls, stands on an eleva- 

 tion a building thirty-five feet long, containing a 

 single chamber, with the front fallen, and, rising 

 among the rubbish, the remains of two columns, 

 elaborately ornamented with sculpture ; the whole 

 interior wall being exposed to view, covered from 

 the floor to the peak of the arch with sculptured fig- 

 ures in bas-relief, much worn and faded. The en- 

 graving represents the two walls, with this building 

 in the distance. And at the other end, setting back, 

 too, one hundred feet, and commanding the space 

 between the walls, is another building eighty-one 

 feet long, also ruined, but exhibiting the remains of 

 two columns richly ornamented with sculptured 

 figures in bas-relief The position in which these 

 walls and buildings stand to each other is laid down 

 on the general plan. 



In the centre of the great stone walls, exactly op- 



