[V-7] Lat. 30° 22´ 86´´ (!), Long. 4´ 33´´ west of Mérida. 'Une couche très mince d'une terre ferrugineuse recouvre le sol, mais disparaît dans les environs où l'on n'aperçoit que du sable.' Friederichsthal, in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1841, tom. xcii., p. 306. 2 miles (German) west of Jalacho, which lies near Maxcanú, on the road from Mérida to Campeche. Wappäus, Geog. u. Stat., p. 144. 20 leagues from Mérida, occupying an extent of several leagues. Mühlenpfordt, Mejico, tom. ii., pt. i., p. 12. 'A huit lieues de Mayapan ... dans une plaine légèrement ondulée.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 21. 'Le terrain d'Uxmal est plat dans toute l'étendue du plateau.' 'Sur le plateau d'une haute montagne.' Waldeck, Voy. Pitt., pp. 68, 70.
[V-8] 'Sur un diamètre d'une lieue, le sol est couvert de débris, dont quelques-uns recouvrent des intérieurs fort bien conservés.' Charnay, Ruines Amér., p. 363.
[V-9] In the plan I have followed Stephens, Yucatan, vol. i., p. 165, who determined the position of all the structures by actual measurement, cutting roads through the undergrowth for this express purpose, and the accuracy of whose survey cannot be called in question. His plan is reproduced on a reduced scale in Willson's Amer. Hist., p. 83. Plans are also given in Waldeck, Voy. Pitt., pl. viii.; Norman's Rambles in Yuc., p. 155; and Charnay, Ruines Amér., introd. by Viollet-le-Duc, p. 62. These all differ very materially both from that of Stephens, and from each other; they are moreover very incomplete, and bear marks of having been carelessly or hastily prepared. 'Disposée en échiquier, où se déployaient, à la suite les uns des autres, les palais et les temples.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 21. Besides the plans, general views of the ruins from nearly the same point (q on the plan looking southward) are given by Stephens, Yucatan, vol. i., p. 305, and by Charnay, Ruines Amér., phot. 49. Norman, Rambles in Yuc., frontispiece, gives a general view of the ruins by moonlight from a point and in a direction impossible to fix, which is copied in the Album Mex., tom. i., p. 203, in Frost's Great Cities, p. 269, and in Id., Pict. Hist. Mex., p. 80. It makes a very pretty frontispiece, which is about all that can be said in its favor, except that it might serve equally well to illustrate any other group of American or old-world antiquities.
[V-10] Charnay, Ruines Amér., phot. 49.
[V-11] 'No habiendo tradicion alguna que testifique los nombres propios, que en un principio tuvieron los diferentes edificios que denuncian estas ruinas, es preciso creer que los que hoy llevan, son enteramente gratuitos.' L. G., in Registro Yuc., tom. i., p. 275. Mr Jones is positive this must have been a temple rather than a palace. 'Mr Stephens appears to be so strict a Spartan Republican, that every large, or magnificent building in the Ruined Cities, he considers to be a Palace,—he seems to have thought less of mind, than of matter.' Hist. Anc. Amer., p. 96; Waldeck, Voy. Pitt., p. 97, calls it the Temple of Fire.
[V-12] In stating the dimensions of this mound, as I shall generally do in describing Uxmal, I have followed Stephens' text. His plan and both plans and text of all the other visitors vary more or less respecting each dimension. I had prepared tables of dimensions for each building from all the authorities, but upon reflection have thought it not worth while to insert them. Such tables would not enable the reader to ascertain the exact measurements, and moreover differences of a few feet cannot be considered practically important in this and similar cases. All the authorities agree on the general form and extent of this pyramidal mound. Most of them, however, refer only to the eastern front, and no one but Stephens notes the western irregularities. In giving the dimensions of the respective terraces some also refer to their bases, and others probably to their summits. Norman, Rambles in Yuc., pp. 156-7, states that the second and third terraces are each thirty feet high, while Charnay, Ruines Amér., pp. 372-3, makes the same fifteen and ten feet respectively. Waldeck's plan makes the summit platform about 240 feet long.
[V-13] Jones, Hist. Anc. Amer., p. 120, says there was a stairway in the centre of each side.
[V-14] Norman's dimensions are 36×272 feet; Heller's, 40×320 feet; Friederichsthal's, 38×407 feet; and Waldeck's, about 65×195 feet.
[V-15] Stephens' Yucatan, vol. i., p. 175, reproduced in Baldwin's Anc. Amer., p. 132, and Willson's Amer. Hist., p. 84. The author speaks of the number of rooms as being 18, although the plan shows 24. He probably does not count the four small rooms corresponding with the recesses on the front and rear, as he also does not include their doors in his count. How he gets rid of the other two does not appear. Norman says 24 rooms, Charnay 21, and Stephens indicates 22 in the plan in Cent. Amer., vol. ii., p. 428.
[V-16] Friederichsthal, in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1841, tom. xcii., p. 309, speaking of the Uxmal structures in general, says the blocks are usually 5×12 inches; Zavala, in Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. ii., p. 34, pronounces them from 25 to 28 centimètres in length, width, and thickness.