RUINED EDIFICES. 403 



the corridor on both sides were covered with paint- 

 ings, but green and mildewed from the rankness of 

 vegetation in which the building is smothered. A 

 small doorway in front opens into the chamber, 

 which measures eleven feet by seven ; of this, too, 

 the walls were covered with paintings, decayed and 

 effaced, and against the back wall was an altar for 

 burning copal. 



The building on the top stands directly over the 

 lower chamber, and corresponds with it in dimen- 

 sions, this being the only instance we met with in 

 which one room was placed directly over another. 

 There was no staircase or other visible means of 

 communication between the lower and upper sto- 

 ries. 



At the rear of this building were others attached 

 to it, or connected with it, but uprooted and thrown 

 down by trees, and among the ruins were two stone 

 tablets with rounded surfaces, six feet six inches 

 high, two feet four inches wide, and eight inches 

 thick, having upon them worn and indistinct traces 

 of sculpture. 



At the short distance of fifty-three feet is the 

 building represented in the engraving opposite. It 

 stands on a terrace six feet high, with a staircase in 

 the centre, measures forty-five feet by twenty-six, 

 has two pillars in the doorway, and over the centre 

 is the head of a mutilated figure. The interior is 

 divided into two principal and parallel apartments, 

 and at the north extremity of the inner one is a 



