RUINS OF IZAMAL.
Izamal, something more than twenty miles further eastward, was a city of great importance in aboriginal times, as we shall see in the following volume. Two or three immense pyramids are all the vestiges that remain of its former greatness. The largest mound is between seven and eight hundred feet long, and between fifty and sixty feet high, and Mr Stephens "ascertained beyond all doubt" that it has interior chambers, concerning which he very strangely gives no further information. M. Charnay's photograph shows that this mound was in two receding stages, on the slopes of the upper of which steps are still to be seen. The modern town is built on the site of the ancient city, and the mounds as elsewhere have furnished the material of the later structures. The upper portion of a pyramid facing the one already mentioned was leveled down, and on the lower platform was erected the Franciscan church and convent. Another smaller mound is in the courtyards of two private houses, and on its side near the base is the cara gigantesca, or gigantic face, shown in the cut. It is seven feet wide and seven feet eight inches high. The features were first rudely formed by small rough stones, fixed in the side of the mound by means of mortar, and afterward perfected with a stucco so hard that it has successfully resisted for centuries the action of air and water. There were signs of a row of similar stucco ornaments extending along the side of the mound; and either on this mound or another near by, M. Charnay photographed a similarly formed face, which is twelve feet high. These colossal stucco faces are the distinctive features of the ruins of Izamal, nothing of the kind appearing elsewhere in Yucatan, although a slight resemblance may be traced to the gigantic faces in stone at Copan. Bishop Landa describes one of the Izamal structures as it appeared in his time, and adds a plan to his description. He represents the supporting pyramid as being over one hundred feet high, with a very steep stairway and very high steps, being built in a semi-circular form on one side. According to his statement the edifices were eleven or twelve in number, standing near together. Lizana, another of the early writers on Yucatan, mentions five of the sacred mounds supporting buildings which were already in ruins in his time, and he also gives the Maya name of each temple with its meaning. It should be noted, moreover, that Izamal is, according to the annals of Yucatan, the burial place of Zamná, the great semi-divine founder of the ancient Maya power.[V-88]
SENOTE OF BOLONCHEN.
I now come to the southern group of Maya antiquities, over which I may pass rapidly, beginning with the ruins of Ytsimpte near the village of Bolonchen, some fifteen miles south of Chunhuhu, the most south-western ruin of the central group. By the kindness of the cura and the industry of the natives this ruined city was cleared of all obstacles in the shape of vegetation, and its thorough exploration was thus rendered easy; but unfortunately no corresponding results followed, since no new features whatever were discovered. Here are undoubtedly the remains of a great city, but most of the walls, and all of the sculptured decorations have fallen. Bolonchen means 'nine wells,' so named from a group of natural wells in the plaza. These fail for several months in the dry season, and then the inhabitants resort to a senote in the neighborhood, which, as one of the most wonderful in the peninsula, is shown, or rather one of its several passages is shown, in the cut. By a series of rude ladders water is brought from springs over fifteen hundred feet from the opening at the surface, and at a perpendicular depth of over four hundred feet.
Senote at Bolonchen.
