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328 chambers are known, though the plan on which they were erected was extremely wasteful of material and space. Usually the higher or highest tier was supported on a solid construction, around which the chambers of the lower tier or tiers were grouped (Fig. 78). The whole edifice thus resembled in the main a huge stepped mound, with rooms built in each of the steps. Sometimes the outer chambers of a superior tier would overlap those of an inferior to some extent, but in such cases the floor

of an upper chamber was almost always supported on the dividing wall of two of the lower. The cave-like structure of Maya buildings is particularly evident in such architectural monstrosities. However, many of the sites do not include buildings of more than one floor (apart from the roof-comb). In some cases, as at Tikal, the upper tiers must have been reached by ladders, as no stairway leads to them, and it is interesting to note in this connection that more than one stela at Piedras Negras represents a god seated in a niche to which a ladder gives access from below (Pl. XX; p. 224).