20 
and a host of lesser buildings. Regrettably, we had even less 
time at Uxmal , with its outstanding House of the Governor and 
its towering steep-sided House of the Magician. This pyramid 
is unique in that its base is elliptical in outline, 240 by 
160 feet. It rises 80 feet to the upper platform, which is 
crowned by a 20-foot high temple. Uxmal is more truly Mayan 
in its architecture than Chich4n ItzA, where the Mexican Toltec 
influence, A.D. 950-1200, left its impress. Chich£n Itzd, 
according to Tozzer, however, had a longer recorded history, 
ancient or modern, than any other in all of America, North or 
South. (See footnote, p. 2> ). 
I v\ H i S 
The late Sylvanus G. Morley published some very intriguing 
accounts of the Mayas and their works: { •’ 11 
"In appraising the civilization of any people, the true 
measure of their attainment is not the sum total of their 
achievement compared with the achievements of other peoples, 
but rather their entire accomplishment counted from their own 
cultural zero. 
I 
n Thus the construction of the Empire State Building with 
all the mechanical devices , modern machinery and building mater- 
als available to its builders is much less an achievement than 
the erection of a Maya temple of far less size and complexity, 
but built entirely without metal tools, structural steel, cement, 
hollow tile, machine-sawn and dressed stone, compressed air, 
electricity, gas, steam, and elaborate hoisting machinery. The 
former was built with the knowledge of the ages behind its builders; 
the latter without metal tools, beasts of burden, either animate 
or inanimate, or even knowledge of the principles of the wheel. 
