It will be noticed that the northern building does not stand in quite the same direction as the southern one, which detracts from the symmetry of the whole. It stands on a fourth terrace, twenty feet higher than the others. A grand, but ruined, staircase leads up the center of the terrace. At each end of this staircase built against the terrace, could be distinguished the ruins of a small building. There is one unusual feature about the ruins in the eastern building. In general, only two rooms open into each other. In this building, however, six rooms form one suite, and, furthermore, all the doorways of this suite are decorated with sculpture. As this suite of rooms was evidently a place of interest, we will introduce this illustration, which gives us a good idea of the appearance of the rooms on the inside. We would do well to compare this cut with that of the room in Pueblo Bonito. The arched roof is not a true arch but simply the triangular arch we have already spoken of.
The principal attraction about these buildings is the beautiful façades which overlook the court-yard. They are pronounced by all to be the finest examples of native American art. With one exception, they are neither complicated nor grotesque, but chaste and artistic. As in the Governor’s House, the part below the cornice is plain, but the remaining part, both front and rear, is covered with sculpture. On entering the court-yard from the arched gateway of the southern building, we notice that its façade is composed of diamond lattice-work and vertical columns, while over each doorway is something that resembles a house, with a human figure seated in a doorway. This cut represents but a small portion of this façade, but it gives us an idea of the whole.
The façade of the eastern building was in the best state of preservation of any. We give a section of this also. The ornaments over the doorway, shown in the cut, consist of three of those mysterious masks, with the projecting curved stone, already described. “The ornaments over the other doorways are less striking, more simple, and more pleasing. In all of them there is, in the center, a masked face, with the tongue hanging out, surmounted by an elaborate head-dress. Between the horizontal bars is a range of diamond-shaped ornaments, in which the remains of red paint are still distinctly visible, and at each end of these bars is a serpent’s head, with the mouth wide open.” It is necessary to examine the drawing attentively, to distinguish these features. Some think the masked face represents the sun.