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"rail” or balustrade of the north stairway across the terraces of the 
pyramid by the rising sun. The thought can® to mind that they may well 
bear some relation to the passage of time perhaps as may have been narked 
on the former stucco facing of the terrace panels. Could the Castillo 
also have functioned as a monumental sundial- -an astronomical clock? 
It is conceivable that the Mayas built into that great pyramid more 
practical usefulness, as well as more symbolism, than the archaeologists 
have so far turned u p.2/ 
2/ The scale model of the Chiehen Itza Castillo gracing the Museum’s 
Hall of Latin American Archeology is not quite true to life. The 
sides of its stairways are truly parallel, not farther apart at 
the top than at the bottom; and there are 90 steps instead of the 
91 said to be on the original. Other interesting items bearing on 
Maya history and life are to be found in this same hall. 
Chiehen Itza (translated: "The mouths or openings of the ’wells'" 
(cenotes) of the Itza, the Mayan people who lived in and about, and who 
originally founded this holy city) in its entirety is so vast that no 
one book, and there are many, can ever completely encompass its history, 
its past glory, or all that has been found or yet my be discovered there, 
architecturally and arc Ideologically . 
Other than the dominating Castillo, I shall mention but two other 
structures, the so-called 'observatory," El Caracol, and the great ball 
court. The Spanish name for the former, El Caracol, the Snail, derives 
its name for the winding stairway within the circular tower-like portion 
of this high structure. Round buildings were rarities in the . 
