Sculptured Front at Kabah.
At a short distance from the ruin just described, in a north-easterly direction, is another group, the details of whose arrangement, in the absence of a carefully prepared plan, it is useless to attempt to describe, but three new features presented by these ruins require notice. First, one of them, from a base of one hundred and six by one hundred and forty-seven feet, is built in three receding stories. That is, the roof of each story, or range, forms a platform, or promenade, before the doors of the one above; or, in other words, the stories are built one above another on the slope of a pyramid. Second, an exterior staircase leads up from story to story. These staircases are supported by half of one of the regular triangular arches resting against the top of the wall of the buildings. The accompanying cut, although not representing this or any other particular building, is intended as a half section to illustrate the construction of the Maya structures in several stories, and that of the stairways which afford access to the upper stories; a being the solid mound, or terrace; bb, the apartments or corridors; d, the staircase; and c, an open passage under the half arch of overlapping stones that supports the stairway. In this Kabah building the stairway leading to the foot of the third story is not immediately over the lower one, but in another part of the edifice. The third peculiarity is a double one, and is noticed in some of the doorways; since here for the first time we find lintels of stone, supported each by a central column, about six feet high, of rude workmanship, with square blocks serving as pedestal and capital.[V-59]
Yucatan Structure in Three Stories.
The Casa de Justicia, or Court House, is one hundred and thirteen feet long, divided into five rooms, each nine by twenty feet. The outer wall of this building is plain, except groups of three pillars each between the doorways, and four rows of short pilasters that surround it above the cornice, standing close together like the similar ornaments on the Casa de Tortugas at Uxmal.
Arch at Kabah.