The gloomy aspect of the locality accords well with the dread signification of its name. The ruins stand in the most desolate portion of central Oajaca, in a high, narrow valley, surrounded by bare and barren hills. The soil is a powdery sand, which supports no vegetation save a few scattered pitahayas, and is borne through the air in clouds of dust by the cold dry wind which is almost continually blowing. A stream with parched and shadeless banks flows through the valley, becoming a torrent in the rainy season, when the adjoining country is often flooded. No birds sing or flowers bloom over the remains of the Zapotec heroes, but venomous spiders and scorpions are abundant. Yet a modern village with few inhabitants stands amid the ruins, and the natives go through forms of worship in honor of a foreign deity in a modern church over the tombs of their ancestors' kings and priests, whose faith they were long since forced to abandon.[VII-33]
EXPLORATION OF MITLA.
Most of the early Spanish chroniclers speak of Mitla and of the traditions connected with the place, but what may be called the modern exploration of the structures, as relics of antiquity, dates from the year 1802, when Don Luis Martin and Col. de la Laguna from Mexico visited and sketched the ruins. It was from Martin and from his drawings in the hands of the Marquis of Branciforte, that Humboldt obtained his information. In August 1806, Dupaix and Castañeda reached Mitla in their second exploring tour. In 1830, the German traveler Mühlenpfordt, during a residence in the country, made plans and drawings of the remains, copies of which were retained by Juan B. Carriedo and afterwards published in a Mexican periodical. Drawings were also made by one Sawkins in 1837, and published by Mr Brantz Mayer in a work on Zapotec antiquities. M. de Fossey was at Mitla in 1838, but his description is made up chiefly from other sources. Sr Carriedo, already mentioned, wrote for the Ilustracion Mejicana, a statement of the condition of the ruins in 1852, with measures which had been, or ought to be, taken by the government for their preservation. Mr Arthur von Tempsky spent part of a day at the ruins in February, 1854, publishing a description with several plates in the account of his Mexican travels which he named Mitla. José María García saw the ruins in October, 1855, as is stated in the bulletin of the Mexican Geographical Society, but no description resulted from his exploration. Finally Charnay came in 1859, and succeeded after many difficulties in obtaining a series of most valuable and interesting photographs.[VII-34]
General Plan of Mitla.
The number of ruined edifices at Mitla is variously stated by different authors, according to their methods of counting; for instance, one explorer reckons four buildings enclosing a court as one palace, another as four. The only general plan ever published is that made by Mühlenpfordt, and published by Carriedo, from which the annexed cut was prepared.[VII-35] Most of the visitors, however, say something of the bearing of some of the buildings from the others, and there are only very few instances where such remarks seem to differ from the plan I have given. The structures usually spoken of as palaces or temples, are four in number, marked 1, 2, 3, and 4; 5 and 7 are pyramids, mounds, or altars; and 6 shows the position of the houses in the modern village.
Ground Plan of Palace No. 1.