HOUSE OF THE DWARF. 



313 



stones that it is difficult to ascertain its precise di- 

 mensions, but, according to our measurement, it is 

 two hundred and thirty-five feet long, and one hun- 

 dred and fifty- five wide. Its height is eighty-eight 

 feet, and to the top of the building it is one hundred 

 and five feet. Though diminishing as it rises, its 

 shape is not exactly pyramidal, but its ends are 

 rounded. It is encased with stone, and apparently 

 solid from the plain. 



A great part of the front presented in the engra- 

 ving has fallen, and now lies a mass of ruins at the 

 foot of the mound. Along the base, or rather about 

 twenty feet up the mound, and probably once reach- 

 ed by a staircase, now ruined, is a range of curious 

 apartments, nearly choked up with rubbish, and w r ith 

 the sapote beams still in their places over the door. 



At the height of sixty feet is a solid projecting 

 platform, on which stands a building loaded with 

 ornaments more rich, elaborate, and carefully exe- 

 cuted, than those of any other edifice in Uxmal. A 

 great doorway opens upon the platform. The sa- 

 pote beams are still in their places, and the interior 

 is divided into tw T o apartments ; the outer one fif- 

 teen feet wide, seven feet deep, and nineteen feet 

 high, and the inner one twelve feet wide, four feet 

 deep, and eleven feet high. Both are entirely plain, 

 without ornament of any kind, and have no com- 

 munication with any part of the mound. 



The steps or other means of communication with 

 this building are all gone, and at the time of our 



Vol. L— R r 27 



