[Transcriber's Note:
The text within the engraving is as follows:
Above first row of hieroglyphics: The Hieroglyphics commence at this end and continue in an uninterrupted line to the end.
Above second row of hieroglyphics: Recommence here.
At end of hieroglyphics: 94 in. End of Line of Hieroglyphcs.
At left of ground plan: Ground plan of the Building containing the row of Hieroglyphics which are place over the three inner doorways.
Within ground plan: (width:)Platform 62 feet (depth:) 56 feet.
At right of ground plan: A First Room in which are the Hieroglypics. Room 39 ft. 6 in. long by 7 ft. 6 in. broad.
B B B Small inner rooms with remains of painting.
Lower left of engraving: CHICHEN-ITZA.
Across bottom of engraving: Scale in feet.]
At the short distance of two hundred feet is the building represented in the following engraving. The platform of the terrace was sixty-four feet square, the building had three rooms, but both terrace and building are ruined, and the view is presented only because it was so picturesque that Mr. Catherwood could not resist the temptation to draw it.
All these buildings are within three hundred yards of the staircase of the Monjas; from any intermediate point all are in full sight; the field is open, and intersected by cattle-paths; the buildings, staircases, and terraces were overgrown, but Indians being at hand in sufficient force, they were easily cleared, and the whole was finished with a despatch that had never before attended our progress.
These are the only buildings on the west side of the camino real which are still standing; but great vestiges exist of mounds with remains of buildings upon them, and colossal stones and fragments of sculpture at their feet, which it would be impossible to present in detail.
Passing among these vestiges, we come out upon the camino real, and, crossing it, again enter an open field, containing the extraordinary edifice represented in the plate opposite, which, on first reaching the field of ruins, we rode in on horseback to examine. It consists of two immense parallel walls, each two hundred and seventy-four feet long, thirty feet thick, and one hundred and twenty feet apart. One hundred feet from the northern extremity, facing the open space between the walls, stands on an elevation a building thirty-five feet long, containing a single chamber, with the front fallen, and, rising among the rubbish, the remains of two columns, elaborately ornamented with sculpture; the whole interior wall being exposed to view, covered from the floor to the peak of the arch with sculptured figures in bas-relief, much worn and faded. The engraving represents the two walls, with this building in the distance. And at the other end, setting back, too, one hundred feet, and commanding the space between the walls, is another building eighty-one feet long, also ruined, but exhibiting the remains of two columns richly ornamented with sculptured figures in bas-relief. The position in which these walls and buildings stand to each other is laid down on the general plan.