PILE OF BUILDING CALLED THE MONJAS.293 



the Other side of which appears through the trees, 

 between two other buildings, the end fa9ade of a 

 long, majestic pile, called, like one of the principal 

 edifices at Uxmal, the Monjas, or Nuns; it is re- 

 markably for its good state of preservation, and the 

 richness and beauty of its ornaments, as represented 

 in the plate opposite. The view comprehends the 

 corner of a building on the right, at a short distance, 

 called the Eglesia, or Church. The height of this 

 fa9ade is twenty-five feet, and its width thirty-five. 

 It has two cornices of tasteful and elaborate design. 

 Over the doorway are twenty small cartouches of 

 hieroglyphics in four rows, five in a row, barely in- 

 dicated in the engraving, and to make room for 

 which the lower cornice is carried up. Over these 

 stand out in a line six bold projecting curved orna- 

 ments, like that presented from the House of the 

 Governor at Uxmal, resembling an elephant's trunk, 

 and the upper centre space over the doorway is an 

 irregular circular niche, in which portions of a seat- 

 ed figure, with a head-dress of feathers, still remain. 

 The rest of the ornaments are of that distinctive 

 stamp, characteristic of the ancient American cities, 

 and unlike the designs of any other people, with 

 which the reader must now be famihar. The trop- 

 ical plants and shrubs growing on the roof, which, 

 when we first saw it, hung over the cornice like a 

 fringe-work, added greatly to the picturesque efiect 

 of this elegant fafade. 



