We have seen in our review how general has been the desire to raise foundations, sometimes of great extent, on which to place buildings. This is true of the ruins under consideration. Here the pyramid or foundation was faced with stone work. In this illustration we have a view of such a wall yet remaining in place. The labor expended on such a wall was very great. We notice in the cut three large standing stones. These are ranged along at regular intervals between. No mortar was used in the construction of the wall. If we examine the large standing stone carefully we will notice on the side a sort of projecting shoulder. The stones of the wall that come in contact with this standing stone are cut to fit this shoulder.
The remaining stones in the wall were held in place by a peculiar arrangement, illustrated in this cut. Round holes were drilled in the bottom and top of each stone. There is reason to suppose that bronze pins fitted into these holes. Furthermore, each stone was cut with alternate grooves and projections, so as to fit immovably into each other.
One case was observed where either the will has entirely disappeared, or else it was left unfinished, and so we have a row of these standing stones, as seen in this illustration. This has been called the American Stonehenge name is inappropriate, because we have no reason to suppose the plans of the builders of the two structures were at all similar.
The most celebrated feature of these ruins is the presence of huge gateways, each one cut out of a solid mass of stone. We give a view of the most noteworthy of these gateways. It is now broken, tradition says, by a stroke of lightning.43 The upper portion is covered with carvings.
