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and reefs. As the depth offshore increases, the sea takes on, 
more and more, a richer, darker, deeper blue. At the distant 
horizon line it meets the crystal clear, bright azure of the 
overhead sky. All that is lacking to complete the rich spectrum 
of color are the bright ornaments of gold and jade, the brilliant 
trappings and gorgeous feather headdresses of the copper-hued 
Mayan priests who must once have officiated here. For sheer 
beauty, artistic composition, and "peace of mind," it is a 
panorama unsurpassed in this world. One feels as though he 
would like to sit there and > "drink it in" forever. 
With this wonderful setting, the modest Castillo and the 
lesser temples of Tulum do not suffer in comparison with the far 
greater, finer finished, and more monumental buildings we saw 
some days later at Chichen ItzA and Uxmal. 
One would have to be unimaginative and uninspired not to 
feel some slight stirring to do a book on the Mayas, despite 
the many fine ones that have been written about their marvelously 
unique "acropoli," citadels so to speak, within which their 
temples stand. 
Tulum, with its stone wall, the central portion of which 
is 20 to 25 feet high and about as wide at the base and nearly 
2,400 feet long, was more citadel-like than either Chichen Itzd 
or Uxmal, but an acropolis it is, nonetheless. 
The Castillo at Chichen Itzd (Fig. ) is the most 
imposing of the many temples in this holiest of the Mayan cities 
in its day. Its base covers almost an acre of ground. The 
