Page:Appleton's Guide to Mexico.djvu/65

Rh "The most important of those remaining was named 'Casa del Gobernador' by the Spaniards. It is 320 feet long, and was built of hewn stone laid in mortar or cement. The faces of the wall are smooth up to the cornice. Then follows, on all four sides, 'one solid mass of rich, complicated, and elaborately sculptured ornaments, forming a sort of arabesque.' . . . This building has eleven doorways in front, and one at each end, all having wooden lintels which have fallen. The two principal rooms are 60 feet long, and from 11 to 13 feet wide. This structure is long and narrow. . . . It stands on the summit of one of the grandest of the terraced foundations. This foundation, like the others, is pyramidal. It has three terraces. The lowest is 3 feet high, 15 wide, and 575 long; the second is 20 feet high, 275 wide, and 545 long; the third, 19 feet high, 30 wide, and 360 long. Structures formerly existed on the second terrace, remains of which are visible. . ..

"Another important edifice at Uxmal has been named ‘Casa de las Monjas'—House of the Nuns. It stands on a terraced foundation, and is arranged around a quadrangular courtyard 258 feet one way and 214 the other. The front structure is 279 feet long, and has a gateway in the center, 10 feet 8 inches wide, leading into the court, and four doors on each side of it. The outer face of the wall, above the cornice, is ornamented with sculptures. . . . All the doorways, save those in front, open on the court. . ..

“Other less important edifices in the ruins at Uxmal have been described by explorers, some of which stand on high pyramidal mounds; and inscriptions are found here, but they are not so abundant as at Palenque and Copan."

The remains at Chichen-Itza are similar to those at Uxmal. They are situated a few leagues east of Mayapan,