EDIFICE CALLED AKATZEEB. 291 



By referring to the plan the reader will see the 

 position of the hut in which we lived, and, following 

 the path from our door through the cattle-yard of 

 the hacienda, at the distance of two hundred and 

 fifty yards he will reach the building represented in 

 the plate opposite. It does not stand on an artifi- 

 cial terrace, but the earth seems to have been exca- 

 vated for some distance before it, so as to give it 

 elevation of position. It faces the east, and meas- 

 ures one hundred and forty-nine feet in front by 

 forty-eight feet deep. The whole exterior is rude, 

 and without ornament of any kind. A grand stair- 

 case, forty- five feet wide, now entirely in ruins, rises 

 in the centre to the roof of the building. On each 

 side of the staircase are two doorways ; at each end 

 is a single doorway, and the front facing the west 

 has seven. The whole number of apartments is 

 eighteen. The west front opens upon a large hol- 

 low surface, whether natural or artificial it is not easy 

 to say, and in the centre of this is one of those fea- 

 tures before referred to, a solid mass of masonry, 

 forty-four feet by thirty-four, standing out from the 

 wall, high as the roof, and corresponding, in position 

 and dimensions, with the ruined staircase on the 

 eastern front. This projection is not necessary for 

 the support of the building ; it is not an ornament, 

 but, on the contrary, a deformity ; and whether it 

 be really a soUd mass, or contain interior chambers, 

 remains to be ascertained by the future explorer. 



At the south end the doorway opens into a 



