This may have been a real palace. Its rooms may have been the habitations of royalty, and its corridors may have resounded with the tread of noble personages. M. Charney thinks the palace must have been the home of priests, and not kings—in fact, that it was a monastery, where the priests lived who ministered in the neighboring temples. He thinks Palenque was a holy place, a prehistoric Mecca. We must be cautious about accepting any theory until scholars are more agreed about the plan of government and society among the Central American tribes. But, whatever it was, many years have passed by since it was deserted. For centuries tropical storms have beat against the stuccoed figures. The court-yards and corridors are overrun with vegetation, and great trees are growing on the very top of the tower. So complete is the ruin that it is with difficulty the plan can be made out. The traveler, as he gazes upon it, can scarcely resist letting fancy restore the scene as it was before the hand of ruin had swept over it. In imagination he beholds it perfect in its amplitude and rich decoration, and occupied by the strange people whose portraits and figures may perhaps adorn its walls.
We must now describe the more important of the remaining structures of Palenque. Glancing at the plan for a moment, we see to the south-west of the palace a ruin marked 2. This is the site of a pyramidal structure known as the “Temple of the Three Tablets,” or “Temple of Inscriptions.” The pyramid is not as large in area as the palace, though of a greater height. It measures in height one hundred and ten feet on the slope, but we are not given the other dimensions. All the sides, which were very steep, seem to have had steps. Trees have grown up all over the pyramid and on the top of the building. This illustration, taken from Mr. Stephens’s work, can not fail to impress on us the luxuriant growth of tropical vegetation, and we can also see how such a growth must accelerate the ruin. The stone steps leading up the sides of the pyramid have been thrown down, and such must be in time the fate of the building itself. The building on the summit platform does not cover all the area. It is seventy-six feet front by twenty-five feet deep and about thirty-five feet high.
This small cut is a representation of the same building on a small scale, but cleared of trees and vines. The roof is seen to consist of two parts, sloping at different angles. The lower part was covered with stucco ornaments, which, though too much injured to be drawn, gave the impression that, when perfect and painted, they must have been rich and imposing. The upper slope is of solid masonry. “Along the top was a range of pillars, eighteen inches high and twelve apart, made of small pieces of stone laid in mortar and covered with stucco, having somewhat the appearance of a low, open balustrade.”
In this wood-cut the front wall, as in the palace, presents more the appearance of a row of piers than any thing else. Each of the corner piers contains on its surface hieroglyphics, each of which contains ninety-six squares. The other piers have ornaments of stucco similar to those we have already examined on the palace. In the building itself we have the usual three parallel walls. In this case, however, the second corridor is divided into three rooms, and there is no opening in the third wall, unless it be three small openings for air. The central wall is four or five feet thick.16 The interior is very plain.
The principal point of interest about the building, from whence the name is derived, is three tablets of hieroglyphics. One on either side of the principal doorway of the middle wall, and the third in the rear wall of the middle room. Being so similar to other tablets, it is not necessary to give separate cuts of them. The similarity to those of Copan is very great, the differences being in minute points, which only critical examination would detect. Mr. Stephens tells us that the Indians call this building a school. The priests who came to visit him at the ruins called it a temple of justice, and said the tablets contained the law. We do not think either are very safe guides to follow.
At number three on the plan are the ruins of an edifice which is fast disappearing. The outer wall had already fallen at the time of Mr. Stephens’s visit. It stands on the bank of the stream. The pyramid base is one hundred feet high on the slope. The building on the top is twenty-five feet front by eighteen feet deep. In the inner corridor could be dimly traced the outlines of a beautiful piece of stucco work. At the time of Waldeck’s visit it was still complete, so we are enabled to give a cut of it.