134 INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



To begin on the right : Near the southwest corner of 

 the river wall and the south wall is a recess, which was 

 probably once occupied by a colossal monument front- 

 ing the water, no part of which is now visible ; proba- 

 bly it has fallen and been broken, and the fragments 

 have been buried or washed away by the floods of the 

 rainy season. Beyond are the remains of two small 

 pyramidal structures, to the largest of which is attached 

 a wall running along the west bank of the river ; this 

 appears to have been one of the principal walls of the 

 city ; and between the two pyramids there seems to 

 have been a gateway or principal entrance from the 

 water. 



The south wall runs at right angles to the river, be- 

 ginning with a range of steps about thirty feet high, and 

 each step about eighteen inches square. At the south- 

 east corner is a massive pyramidal structure one hun- 

 dred and twenty feet high on the slope. On the right 

 are other remains of terraces and pyramidal buildings ; 

 and here also was probably a gateway, by a passage 

 about twenty feet wide, into a quadrangular area two 

 hundred and fifty feet square, two sides of which are 

 massive pyramids one hundred and twenty feet high on 

 the slope. 



At the foot of these structures, and in different parts 

 of the quadrangular area, are numerous remains of 

 sculpture. At the point marked E is a colossal monu- 

 ment richly sculptured, fallen, and ruined. Behind it 

 fragments of sculpture, throw-n from their places by 

 trees, are strewed and lying loose on the side of the 

 pyramid, from the base to the top ; and among them our 

 attention was forcibly arrested by rows of death's heads 

 of gigantic proportions, still standing in their places 

 about half way up the side of the pyramid ; the effect 



