On the east and north sides are flights of small stone steps, thirty feet wide at the base, and narrowing as they ascend. Those of the south and west are carried up by gradations resembling steps, each about four feet in height, but are more dilapidated than those upon which the steps are constructed.
The bases were piled up with ruins, and overgrown with a rank grass and vines; and it was only after great labor that I was enabled to reach the side facing the east. Here I found two square stones of an enormous size, partly buried in the ruins, which I cleared away. They were plainly carved, representing some monster with wide extended jaws, with rows of teeth and a protruding tongue. These stones, from their position, were evidently the finish to the base of the steps.
THE DOME,
CHI-CHEN RUINS.
On this side I ascended the fallen and broken steps, through bushes and trees, with which they were partly covered to the summit, one hundred feet. Here I found a terrace or platform, in the centre of which is a square building, one hundred and seventy feet at its base, and twenty feet high. The eastern side of this supplementary structure contains a room twelve by eighteen feet, having two square pillars eight feet high, supporting an angular roof upon strong beams of zuporte wood, the stone and wood being both carved. The sides of the door-ways, and their lintels, are of the same material, and ornamented in the same style. Fronting this room is a corridor supported by two round pillars, three feet in diameter and four in height, standing upon a stone base of two feet; both of which are surmounted with large capitals, hewn or broken in such a manner that no architectural design can now be traced. The sides of these pillars were wrought with figures and lines, which are now quite obliterated. The door-sides of these rooms are built of large square stones, similar to those of the Temple, with the difference of having holes drilled through the inner angles, which were worn smooth, and apparently enlarged by use. The other sides contain rooms and halls in tolerable preservation, having the same form of roofs supported by zuporte wood. These rooms and halls are plastered with a superior finish, and shadowy painted figures are still perceptible. The exterior of the building had been built of fine hewn and uniform blocks of stone, with entablatures of a superior order, and projecting cornices. I could find no access to the top but by the pillars, and by cutting steps in the stone and mortar of the broken edge of the façade, by which, and the aid of bushes, I reached the summit. I found it perfectly level, and one of its corners broken and tumbling down. The whole was covered with a deep soil, in which trees and grass were growing in profusion. From this height I enjoyed a magnificent coup-d’œil of all the ruins, and the vast plain around them. I planted a staff upon the summit, with a flag attached, to float upon the breeze, and after much reflection and speculation, with which I do not intend to trouble my readers, I made my way down again, as surveyors say, “to the place of beginning,” at a much more rapid rate than I ascended.
Unlike most similar structures in Egypt, whose “primeval race had run ere antiquity had begun,” this pyramid does not culminate at the top, as I have already observed. Pococke has described one, however, at Sak-hara, similar to this, which is the only one of which I have ever heard. The solidity of the structure of the pyramid at Chi-Chen, the harmony and grandeur of its architecture, must impress every one with an exalted idea of the mechanical skill, and the numbers of those by whom it was originally constructed, and like its elder (?) brethren in Egypt, so long as it stands, it must remain a monumental protest of an oppressed people against the ill-directed ambition and tyranny of those rulers at whose command it was built.
About the centre of the ruins of the city is THE DOME, to which I made my way as usual, through thick masses of tangled vegetation, by which it was surrounded. This building stood upon a double foundation, as far as I could judge, though I was unable to satisfy myself completely, owing to the fallen ruins which once formed a part of its structure, but which now almost concealed its base from the view.
I found on the east side broken steps, by which I ascended to a platform built about thirty feet from the base, the sides of which measured each about one hundred and twenty-five feet. The walls were constructed of fine hewn stone, beautifully finished at the top, and the angles, parts of which had fallen, were tastefully curved.
THE FRONT
HOUSE OF THE CACIQUES.
CHI-CHEN RUINS.