Ground Plan of Labphak Structure.
Sculptured Tablet at Labphak.
RUINS OF LABPHAK.
Labphak is about twenty miles further south, and is one of the grandest of the Maya ruins, although the single brief exploration by Mr Stephens, its only visitor, is barely sufficient to excite our curiosity respecting its unknown wonders. Only one building was examined with care; this has three receding stories. The western front was carefully cleared, and, sketched by Mr Catherwood, resembling very closely the other three-storied structures before described. But at the last moment it was discovered that this was only the rear wall, and that the eastern front "presented the tottering remains of the grandest structure that now rears its ruined head in the forests of Yucatan." The dimensions and arrangement of rooms of the lower story, differing from any that have been met further north, are shown in the accompanying ground plan, together with the stairways that lead up to the second story. Besides the grand central eastern staircase, there are two interior stairways, each in two flights, leading up to the platform of the second and third stories from the rooms of the western range. This is the first instance of interior stairs, but the method of their construction is not explained. The western wall of the third story has no doorways. On the platform of the second story stand two high buildings like towers, ornamented with stucco, and on the third platform two similar structures at the head of the stairway before the central entrance. These upper rooms have plain walls and ceilings. The lower ones present numerous imprints of the ever-present red hand, and one of them has a painted stone in the tier over the arch, as at Kewick. At the points marked a in the plan, are sculptured tablets of stone fixed in the exterior walls, one of which is shown in the cut. Each tablet is composed of several pieces of stone, and the sculptured figures are naturally much worn by exposure to the air and rain. Two circular openings to chultunes, or cisterns, like those at Uxmal and elsewhere, were found near by. Another Labphak structure formed a parallelogram, surrounding a courtyard, and presenting two peculiarities; the entrance to the court was by stairways leading over the flat roof of one of the ranges of buildings; and the ornamentation of the court façades was in stucco instead of sculptured stone. With this slight description I am obliged to leave this most interesting city, whose solitude, so far as I know, has remained undisturbed for thirty years and more since Messrs Stephens and Catherwood spent two days in the halls of its departed greatness. Now as then, "it remains a rich and almost unbroken field for the future explorer."
At Iturbide, the south-western frontier town of modern Yucatan, there is a mound of ruins in the plaza, and also a well some four feet in diameter, and twenty-five feet deep, stoned with hewn blocks without mortar; its sides polished by long usage, and grooved by the ropes employed in drawing water. This well is considered the work of the antiguos, and another similar one was seen near by. In the outskirts of Iturbide the plain is dotted with the mounds and stone buildings of the ancient town of Zibilnocac. Thirty-three mounds were counted, but the walls of the buildings had all fallen except one, which presented the peculiarity of square elevations, or towers, with sculptured façades, at each end and in the middle. Its rooms also preserved traces of interesting paintings, representing processions of human figures whose flesh was colored red.
AGUADAS OF THE SOUTH.
At the rancho of Noyaxche, a few miles distant, is a seemingly natural pond, which, being explored by the proprietor during a very dry season, proved to have an artificial bottom of flat stones many layers thick, pierced in the centre with four wells, and round the circumference with over four hundred small pits, or cisterns. At Macoba, twelve or fifteen miles eastward is another similar aguada, and ruined buildings are also found, actually occupied by the natives as dwellings. Mankeesh is another locality in this region where extensive ruins are reported to exist. At the rancho of Jalal is an aguada similar to the one mentioned at Noyaxche, the forms of the wells and cisterns, pierced in its paved bottom being illustrated by the cut. Upwards of forty deep wells were discovered by the natives in the immediate neighborhood. Yakatzib is another place near by, where ruined buildings were seen. Becanchen is a town of six thousand inhabitants, and owes its existence to the discovery of a group of ancient wells, partially artificial, and a stream of running water. Fragments of ancient structures are built into the walls of the town.[V-89]