298 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



who visited these ruins, and brought them to the 

 notice of the public. 



To return. I have ah'eady mentioned the Casa 

 del Gobernador and the Casa de las Tortugas, or 

 House of the Turtles, the latter of w^hich stands on 

 the grand platform of the second terrace of the Casa 

 del Gobernador, at the northwest corner. 



Descending from this building, and on a line with 

 the doorway of the Casa de las Monjas, going north, 

 at the distance of two hundred and forty feet are 

 two ruined edifices facing each other, and seventy 

 feet apart, as laid down on the general plan of the 

 ruins. Each is one hundred and twenty-eight feet 

 long, and thirty feet deep, and, so far as they can be 

 made out, they appear to have been exactly alike in 

 plan and ornament. The sides facing each other 

 were embellished with sculpture, and there remain 

 on both the fragments of entwined colossal serpents, 

 which ran the whole length of the walls. 



In the centre of each facade, at points directly 

 opposite each other, are the fragments of a great 

 stone ring. Each of these rings was four feet in 

 diameter, and secured in the wall by a stone tenon 

 of corresponding dimensions. They appear to have 

 been broken wilfully ; of each, the part nearest the 

 stem still projects from the wall, and the outer sur- 

 face is covered with sculptured characters. We 

 made excavations among the ruins along the base of 

 the walls, in hope of discovering the missing parts 

 of these rings, but without success. 



These structures have no doorways or openings 



