In these subterraneous apartments are three large stone tables with sculptured edges; they are called altars, beds, sacrificial and dining tables, by different writers, the latter appellation seems the most probable. The independent position of the cloister is very clear in our cut; the left pillar is seen supporting the extremity of the frieze and the end of the roof, which terminated here as it did on the west side.
PLAN OF PALACE AT PALENQUE (NORTH SIDE).
All travellers before us have surrounded the entire palace with this gallery, as they have surrounded the great pyramid on which the palace stands with a continuous stairway, but quite erroneously, as is clearly shown in our photograph, which cannot be wrong, and which presents a perpendicular wall throughout its length. The pyramid was divided on the east, north, and west sides, which were higher, into three or four platforms of which we found traces in the north portion.
BASEMENT OF PYRAMID IN THE PALACE OF PALENQUE.
We have mentioned in a former chapter that similar sections or platforms are found in all the pyramids of a certain height discovered by us at Palenque, which, according to tradition, had their prototypes in the Uplands; and this is particularly noticeable on the north side of the pyramid, where the palace façade is completely destroyed. Here, and not on the east side, as some have supposed, was the entrance, sufficiently proved by the wealth of ornamentation displayed on this portion of the pyramid, and not observable anywhere else. The base was incrusted with fine slabs some 4 feet 8 inches high, with intervening pillars in relief some 6 feet apart, topped by a cornice of some 6 inches. Above this stood the wall of the second platform, indicated by traces of a stairway which occupied the centre and led to the gallery. This pyramid was the basement on which the palace was reared; it is irregular on all its sides, contrary to the drawings of some explorers, who have given it a symmetrical shape and equal elevation. It is not easy to see how the mistake could arise, for its irregularity is very apparent. The highest elevation is found on the north side, measuring over 22 feet; the east and west sides slope down, ending at the south-east angle with a perpendicular corner of 6 feet 6 inches; whilst at the south-west corner they are level with the ground. It is the arrangement of all pyramids which were raised on platforms imperfectly levelled out; they are always found higher on the north side facing the plain, than on the south side towards the sierra. This was observable in the pyramids supporting the four buildings to the north of the palace, in the Temple of Inscriptions, the Temple of the Cross No. 1, that of the Cross No. 2, and in the mound known as Cerro Alto, over 487 feet high on the north side, and nearly on a level with the crest of the low hills to the south, and many more.
THE PALACE, OUTER FAÇADE, PALENQUE.
At the south-east angle of the great pyramid, is a covered canal which drained a mountain stream from the south, but has been long since blocked up, whilst the torrent has found a natural bed some 75 feet from the pyramid, and falls back into the canal 162 feet beyond. Our cut of the outer façade of the east gallery will enable the reader to see the mistake pointed out by us; it shows clearly the extremity of the gallery, and its outline at the angle of the frieze to the south. This outline, while restoring the projecting cornice now wanting, faithfully reproduces the outline of the Toltec calli, given in our chapter on Tula. The west front, as seen in the plan and subsequent photographs, has exactly the same arrangement, so that doubt is impossible. The same writers have given a flight of steps to the eastern façade, while in our drawing a perpendicular wall replaces it, and agreeably to what has been stated, we place the stairs on the north side, where traces were found by us. That this is its proper place is made probable by four beautiful buildings situated on this side some 487 feet beyond, on the same platform, and apparently part of the same pile of building. This side of the gallery was supported by six pillars 6 feet 7 inches wide, by 12 feet high; the corner pillar is decorated with forty katunes in fairly good preservation; the others with bas-reliefs of two or three figures and inscriptions in stucco or hard plaster, partly destroyed. Stephens reproduced the one on the fifth pillar to the right, which stands alone, the building it supported having fallen. It was then in good preservation, though now much defaced; from Stephens’ drawing, however, it would be difficult to form an idea of the high degree of perfection of these reliefs.