Fortifications of Centla.
Beyond the narrow fortified pass that has been described, the southern ravine again diverges and forms a semicircle before joining that on the north, forming thus a peninsular plateau a mile and a half long, and somewhat less than three quarters of a mile wide, covered with soil of great fertility, and divided in two parts by the waters of a spring, whose waters flow through the centre. Since its discovery this fertile table has been settled and cultivated by modern farmers, some twenty families of whom—whether native or Spanish is not stated—were living here in 1832. The whole surface was covered with traces of its former inhabitants, but most of the monuments in the cultivated portions have been destroyed by the settlers, who used the stones for buildings and fences. In other parts, covered with a forest at the time of exploration, extensive remains were found in good preservation, besides the fortresses at the entrance. Pyramids of different dimensions, standing singly and in groups, together with foundations of houses and sculptured fragments, were scattered in every direction enveloped in the forest growth.
Type of Pyramids at Centla.
The pyramids are all built of rough stones, clay, and earth, faced on the outside with hewn blocks from eighteen inches to two feet long, laid in mortar. The stone seems to have been brought from the bottom of the ravines, and it is said that no lime is procurable within a distance of fifteen or twenty miles. Sartorius gives a plate representing one of the pyramids, which he states to be a type of all those at Centla, and indeed of all in this region, and which is copied in the cut. The stairways are generally on the west, and the niches at the sides are represented as having arched tops and as occupied by idols. Some of the smaller mounds have been found to contain human skeletons lying north and south, and from one of them a farmer claimed to have dug a number of green stone beads. Sartorius claims to have found in connection with one of the pyramids an altar having a concavity on the top, and a canal leading to a receptacle at the foot of the mound; he also mentions a very elegant vase, six by four inches, found under a stone flag, near the altar. Gondra speaks of a large square or court, level and covered with a coat of hard polished cement; he also claims that six columns of stone and mortar were seen, twelve feet high, standing at the bottom of a ravine.
El Castillo at Huatusco.
RUINS AT HUATUSCO.