is in the form of a trapezoid three hundred and twenty feet long, forty 
feet wide, aud about twenty-six feet high. The facade of the front 
wall is of rare beauty. The sculptured zone, about ten feet in width, 
extends for seven hundred and twenty feet, the space being literally 
crowded with unique designs. Twenty thousand stones, all sculp- 
tured before being set, and each a part of a perfectly pictured design, 
were required for this amazing work. An idea of this decoration may 
be had from our reproduction of the ornamentation over a door in 
the east front of the Governor’s Palace. This picture is reproduced from 
one of Charnay’s photographs (a cast of a part of it is in the Ameri- 
can Museum of Natural History, and appears in Professor Holmes’ 
_ report). It is not possible to enter into the details of this superb ruin. 
Artists and architects, archeologists and ethnologists, are alike amazed 
and delighted with the superb work, which, even in its ruined state, 
appeals to the imagination, as does the sand-defaced features of the 
mighty Sphinx in the Nile Valley. 
“The House of Turtles,” though inferior in dimensions, is still a 
_ handsome and representative structure. It is seen in the panorama to 
the right of the palace, and on a projection of the second terrace to the 
northwest. It is a rectangular building, unconnected with the others, 
and is about one hundred feet long by thirty in width. Its walls are 
covered with the characteristic ornaments. 
“The House of the Pigeons,” so called from the dove-cot 
appearance of the wall crests, is 
seen to the right of the House of 
the Turtles. Like the others the 
purpose of this fine building is, and 
it is feared must forever remain, an 
unsolved riddle. The walls have 
the usual decorations, but the door- 
like opening on the crests are 
a mystery. Professor Holmes . 
shrewdly surmises that these yoke- 
like combs supported statuary, and 
were further intended for orna- 
ment. The comb of this building 
1s, according to Stephens, one hun- 
dred and eighty by one hundred 
and fifty feet. Only one wall is 
visible in the panorama. 
_ Beyond the gabled ruin is the 
building known as the “ South 
Quadrangle.” It covers an area of 
_ two hundred by oue hundred and 
| twenty-five feet, with a fine temple- 
crowned pyramid on the south 
side. 
The crowning building at Ux- 
mal is ‘‘ The Great Pyramid.” It 
is three hundred by two hundred, 
and is over seventy feet in height. 
About it the ground is littered with 
ruins, so that an examination is 
dificult. From these ruins many 
complete columns and specimens of carving have been carried away 
to northern museums. 
