A MOUND. RUINED BUILDINGS. 387 



ruined apartments. The steps are all fallen, and 

 the sides present a surface of loose stones, difficult 

 to climb, except on one side, where the ascent is 

 rendered practicable by the aid of trees. The top 

 presents a grand view. I ascended it for the first 

 time toward evening, when the sun was about set- 

 ting, and the ruined buildings were casting length- 

 ened shadows over the plain. At the north, south, 

 and east the view was bounded by a range of hills. 

 In part of the field of ruins was a clearing, in which 

 stood a deserted rancho, and the only indication 

 that we were in the vicinity of man was the distant 

 church in the village of Nohcacab. 



Leaving this mound, again taking the milpa path, 

 and following it to the distance of three or four hun- 

 dred yards, we reach the foot of a terrace twenty 

 feet high, the edge of which is overgrown with trees ; 

 ascending this, we stand on a platform two hundred 

 feet in width by one hundred and forty-two feet 

 deep, and facing us is the building represented in 

 the plate opposite. On the right of the platform, as 

 we approach this building, is a high range of struc- 

 tures, ruined and overgrown with trees, with an im- 

 mense back wall built on the outer line of the plat- 

 form, perpendicular to the bottom of the terrace. 

 On the left is another range of ruined buildings, not 

 so grand as those on the right, and in the centre of 

 the platform is a stone enclosure twenty-seven feet 

 square and seven feet high, like that surrounding the 

 picote at Uxmal ; but the layer of stones around the 



