Fig. 37.—Panorama of Uxmal, Yucatan.
In the foreground at the left is the Pyramid-temple of the Magician, A, with its small court at the right-hand base. Connecting immediately with this is the Nunnery quadrangle, B, occupying the greater part of the foreground. Behind the latter, on the ground level, are two massive ruined walls usually referred to as the Gymnasium, C, and rising behind this is a great triple terrace, on the second level of which, at the right, is the House of the Turtles, D, and crowning the summit is the Governor's Palace, E. To the right and beyond is the serrated crest of the House of the Pigeons, F, overshadowed on the left by the massive pyramid, G, and backed up by a temple-crowned pyramidal pile of inferior dimensions, H. To the left of the House of the Governor and beyond is a group consisting of two pyramids, I, and on the right of the Nunnery quadrangle, and some distance farther away, are other ruined masses, one only coming fully within the limits of the picture.—W. H. Holmes.
The pueblo dwellings, built largely of adobe, are stated by ethnologists to have extended southward into Mexico, and illustrate the nature of the houses in which the Aztecs lived, but the highest type of aboriginal architecture in America is furnished by the dwellings and so-called temples, palaces, etc., still standing in Yucatan and other portions of Central America. In these ruins we have abundant example of buildings made of cut stone, laid in regular and even
courses, united with mortar composed of burned lime and sand, and elaborately sculptured in bas-relief and in the round, or covered with designs moulded in stucco. In size and proportions these unique structures are impressive. The so-called Governor's Palace at Uxmal, Yucatan, is 320 feet long, 40 feet wide, and 25 to 26 feet high, and surmounts an artificially constructed platform of earth 35 feet high and
approximately 550 feet square. This platform is terraced and provided with broad flights of stone steps (Fig. 37). These dimensions will serve to render more instructive the accompanying sketch of the principal ruins at Uxmal by W. H. Holmes.
Fig. 38.—Examples of Maya Arches. After W. H. Holmes.
a. Section of cuneiform arch with acute apex, Chichen-Itza.
b. Section of ordinary arch with flat capstone.
c. Section of ordinary arch with dressed surfaces.
d. Section of ordinary arch with dressed surfaces and curved soffit slopes.
e. Portal arch with long slopes, showing masonry of exterior facing.
f. Section of trefoil, portal arch of Palenque.
Mere size and their great number are not the significant features of these ruins. They are well built, of cut stone, and most elaborately decorated, as may be seen by the accompanying reproduction of a photograph of a typical example. In reference to the skill displayed by the unknown architects and builders, Holmes, one of the most recent as well as the most critical of Central American travellers, remarks as follows: