The ruins of Mitla, which at the time of the Conquest occupied a wide space, are now reduced to six palaces and three ruined pyramids. In the square of the village stands an oblong edifice, 98 feet long by 13 feet wide, faced with unsculptured blocks of stone, with only one opening at the side.
The next, in our general view of Mitla, is the first edifice to the north on the slope of the hill, consisting of a confusion of courts, buildings, and mosaic work in relief of beautiful and graceful patterns. Below are found traces of very primitive paintings, representing rude figures of idols and lines forming meanders, the meaning of which is unknown. The same rude paintings are found throughout the palace in sheltered places which have escaped the ravages of time. That such immature drawings should be found in palaces of beautiful architecture, decorated with panels of exquisite mosaic work, are facts which, at first sight, make it difficult to ascribe them to the same people.
I have called the first ruin the cura’s house, because the venerable man, who has occupied it for the last fifty years, used the walls of the ancient edifice to build himself a spacious and comfortable house. The church adjoining it is also constructed with the material taken from the ancient palace.
Below, to the left, is a truncated pyramid, built with adobes, ascended by a stone staircase, having a Christian chapel on its summit. The Spaniards cleared it so completely of the ancient temple that no trace remains. The great palace, the walls of which are still entire, consists of a vast edifice in the shape of a Tau; the main façade faces south, and is the best preserved of all the monuments at Mitla, measuring 130 feet, with an apartment corresponding to it of the same dimensions, and six monolith columns which supported the roof now fallen in. Three large doorways gave access to the apartment, having a pavement covered with cement.
Both Torquemada and Clavigero, who wrote of these monuments from hearsay, erroneously ascribe 30 feet and 80 feet respectively to these columns.
PLAN OF CHIEF PALACE OF MITLA.
The only entrance to the inner court on the right, which is also cemented, is through a dark narrow passage, having the walls and the main façade covered with mosaic work in panels, framed with stones. The court is square, and opens into four narrow long apartments covered from top to bottom with mosaic work in relief, arranged in varied parallel bands, extending to the roof. The lintels over the doorways were formed of huge blocks of stone from 16 feet to 18 feet. We give a ground plan of the palace, and a cut of the great hall or apartment, together with a cut of the same hall restored by Viollet-le-Duc, who says of this monument:
