A cut of one of the beautifully sculptured façades of the Casa de Monjas will be found on a future page. Near the Casa de Monjas stands the pyramid and edifice generally known as the Casa del Adivino or Prophet’s house, and named by M. Waldeck the Pyramid de Kingsborough. The pyramid rises to a height of 80 feet from a base of 155 by 235 feet. The corners are rounded, and the sides, which are carefully faced with cubical blocks of stone, rise so steep that the ascent and descent by the grand stairway on the eastern face is giddy and dangerous. The stairway measuring one hundred and two feet on the slope is inclined at an angle of eighty degrees.[507]
About a dozen miles south-eastward from Uxmal are the remains of the ancient city known as Kabah, where ruins quite similar and nearly as extensive as those already described are found. However, new architectural features here meet the observer. In one instance the structure which surmounts a terraced pyramid is square, instead of long and narrow as at Uxmal. The inner rooms of the edifice have floors two feet higher than the floors of the outer rooms, and are entered by two stone steps. In one instance these were cut from a single block with the lower step in the form of a scroll. At Kabah we meet with an entirely new feature in Maya architecture, and the reader’s acquaintance with the terraced casas, of the New Mexican region, will supply the lack of an illustration at this point. In the style of building referred to, the pyramid instead of serving as a foundation for the building, serves as a central support around which the house with its receding stories, one above another, is built. The first story of the building referred to is built upon the ground, with the perpendicular sides of a mound for its rear wall. Just above, on a level with the roof of the first story on the platform of the first terrace of the mound, stands the second story, with the roof of the first serving as a promenade in front of it, while the third story rests upon the second platform of the mound. The platforms or roofs of the first and second stories are reached by means of a stone stairway supported upon a half arch. The first story is accessible from the ground by doorways. The interior apartments are constructed on the model of the Yucatec arch. Here, however, lintels of stone are met with, supported in the centre by rude stone columns surmounted by square capitals. These buildings are of large proportions, equalling any we have thus far described. The decorations of the edifices were considered by Mr. Stephens equal to those of any known era, even when tried by the severest rules of art.[508] At Zayi, one of the finest illustrations of this style of architecture is to be seen in what is known as the Casa Grande. The dimensions of the Casa Grande are as follows: lower story, 120 by 265 feet; the second story, 60 by 220 feet; and the third, resting on the summit platform of the mound, 18 by 150 feet; a stairway thirty-two feet wide furnishes a means of ascent to the third story on the front, while a narrow stairway leads to the second story at the rear. Round columns both in doorways and the façade constitute the chief variation from the styles already observed. An “elephant trunk” ornament protruding from the cornice (also found on Casa del Gobernador and the Casa de Monjas at Uxmal) is a marked feature of decoration. It is unnecessary for us to say that its presence has given rise to much speculation as to its origin. M. Waldeck has given the figure the name which we have applied to it, and perhaps with some reason.[509]
At Labná ruins of a curious and extraordinary nature exist, though far gone in decay. The accompanying cut, employed in Stephens’, Baldwin’s and Bancroft’s works, will serve to show the extravagant decoration lavished upon the cornices of the edifices. At Chichen-Itza, the so-called “Nunnery” is supported by a solid mass of masonry, with perpendicular walls. The dimensions of this base are one hundred and twelve by one hundred and sixty feet and forty-two feet high. This was crowned by a building having two receding stories. The great pyramid of Chichen is celebrated for the solid stone balustrade which guards its northern stairway of ninety steps, forty-four feet wide. These balustrades terminate in colossal serpent heads, ten feet long.[510] Both at Chichen and at Mayapan circular structures are met with and are figured by Stephens.[511] The same author has described the rectangular watch-towers of Tuloom, which rise majestically amid the extensive ruins of the ancient city of the same name, situated upon the eastern coast in latitude 20° 10´. At Tuloom, Mr. Stephens (its only describer), found the first walled city in Yucatan. He believes it to have been occupied long after the conquest, and probably was one of the cities whose many towers met the gaze of the wondering Spaniards, who beheld them as they coasted along the shore.[512]
Corner at Labná.
Quiché Architecture.—The propriety of classifying the great ruins of Honduras and Guatemala as Quiché in their origin and style, may be questioned by some of our readers. It must be admitted that great contrasts in style are found in this region, which was occupied by the powerful kingdom of the Quichés and Cakchiquels, at the time of the conquest. However, it is probable that the ancient Quichés (who, as we have already seen, at an early day developed a religion and literature), were the authors of the more ancient cities, like Copan and Quirigua. The Quiché-Cakchiquels of more modern times were quite another people, whose institutions, language, and no doubt their architecture, had been largely influenced by Nahua people from the Mexican plateau. Utatlan, the magnificent capital of this modern and mixed people, was in the height of its glory just before the blighting power of the conquerors laid it in ruins. As ours is not an attempt at the history of discovery, we omit entirely that interesting feature in the treatment of antiquities, and call attention at once to the features conspicuous in Quiché architecture. The ancient city known as Copan, on the eastern bank of a river of the same name, in latitude 14° 45´ and longitude 90° 52´ in Honduras, and four leagues from the Guatemala line, is interesting in furnishing material for study in this department. It is probably the most ancient city on the continent. Copan no doubt could successfully contend with Palenque for the palm of antiquity. It is again to the indefatigable Stephens and the skillful Catherwood that we are most indebted for our knowledge of these ruins.[513] The period of the abandonment of Copan is a question with reference to which we possess too few data to render an intelligent decision concerning it. Following the example of Stephens and Bancroft, we first introduce the account of Fuentes contained in Juarros.[514] “In the year 1700, the great circus of Copan still remained entire. This was a circular space, surrounded by stone pyramids about six yards high and very well constructed; at the base of these pyramids were figures, both male and female, of very excellent sculpture, which then retained the colors they had been enameled with; and what was not less remarkable, the whole of them were habited in the Castilian costume. In the middle of this area, elevated above a flight of steps, was the place of sacrifice. The same author (Fuentes) relates that, a short distance from the circus, there was a portal constructed of stone, on the columns of which were the figures of men, likewise represented in Spanish habits, with hose, ruff round the neck, sword, cap, and short cloak. On entering the gateway there are two fine stone pyramids, moderately large and lofty, from which is suspended a hammock that contains two human figures, one of each sex, clothed in the Indian style. Astonishment is forcibly excited in viewing this structure, because, large as it is, there is no appearance of the component parts being joined together; and although entirely of stone and of an enormous weight, it may be put in motion by the slightest impulse of the hand. Not far from this hammock is the cave of Tibulca; this appears like a temple of great size hollowed out of the base of a hill, and adorned with columns having bases, pedestals, capitals and crowns, all accurately adjusted according to architectural principles; at the sides are numerous windows faced with stone exquisitely wrought. All these circumstances lead to a belief that there must have been some intercourse between the inhabitants of the old and new world at very remote periods.” The swinging stone hammock is probably a work of the fancy rather than that of the artist’s hand, though the padre at Gualan told Stephens that he had seen it, and an Indian remembered to have heard his grandfather speak of it. None of these remarkable remains have been identified with certainty, though it is not improbable that they might be discovered if the heavy growth of vegetation were removed by a conflagration and explorers to extend their observations farther from the banks of the Rio Copan. According to Stephens’ survey, a wall encloses a rectangular area measuring about nine hundred by sixteen hundred feet. The principal group of buildings is designated as the temple. It is built of heavy blocks of cut stone, with walls of about twenty-five feet in thickness, and when examined they were between sixty and ninety feet high on the river’s bank. The temple measured six hundred and twenty-four feet north and south by eight hundred and nine feet east and west. The general feature of the ruin is that of an immense pyramidal terrace, with a platform elevated about seventy feet above the ground. The river side of the terrace is perpendicular, while the remaining sides are sloping; viewing the ruin from this general platform seventy feet high, depressions such as amphitheatre-like courts descend from it in some instances thirty or forty feet, or about half way to the level of the ground, while above the level of the general platform pyramidal structures rise to a considerable height, in one instance one hundred and twenty-two feet. It is difficult to conceive of what might have been the nature of the superstructure, if any surmounted the general platform. It is probable that for the purposes of assembly the amphitheatres with their sloping sides may have answered every purpose, while the pyramids may have been surmounted by temples now in ruins. Of the sculptured columns of this locality we will speak farther on. Utatlan, the former capital of the modern Quiché kingdom, would naturally be selected as a point at which to seek for remains of the newer Quiché styles of architecture. The conquerors, however, left little that can serve as the basis for architectural study. The city was surrounded by a deep ravine or barranca, which can be crossed at only one point, and there long lines of stone fortifications still guard the passage. A fortress, called El Resguardo, is among these works. It rises one hundred and twenty feet high in the form of a terraced pyramid, with a stone wall plastered with cement enclosing its summit platform, on which a circular tower provided with a stairway was built. Only fragmentary walls of the Quiché palaces remain; their dimensions were eleven hundred by twenty-two hundred feet, and nothing but their cement covered floors have survived the vandalism of the conquerors and the architects of the modern town; the latter having carried away the upper portions for building purposes. A pyramidal structure near by, known as El Sacrificatorio, presents no architectural contrasts to pyramids already described. Its stairway, composed of nineteen steps each eight inches broad and seventeen inches high, is characteristically Central American.[515] In the province of Vera Paz, especially in the Rabinal Valley, Brasseur de Bourbourg observed numbers of tumuli, resembling those of the Mississippi Valley both in material and structure. These were especially prevalent in the neighborhood of the villages, and sometimes were associated with pyramidal structures equal in finish to any we have described. The name cakhay, “red houses,” is generally applied to these tumuli.[516]
Nahua Architecture.—It would be quite impossible for us to devote that space to this subject which the number of remains would justify, and the presentation of the typal features of the architecture of that interesting family of nations will be all that we shall here attempt; of geographical and detailed treatments there are several on the different departments of the subject.[517] In the pages which follow we will select a few examples of Nahua architecture in order to illustrate our subject, but we would state that many equally important works, though perhaps presenting no new features, have been purposely passed by unnoticed. In a preceding chapter we referred to those intermediate nations which occupied the transition position between the Mayas and Nahuas. The Miztecs, Zapotecs and others, were probably a mixed people, related in different degrees to both of the great families on the north and south of them. Oajaca and Guerrero were the homes of these peoples, where they developed their own civilization and styles of art in channels distinct from those of their neighbors. The isthmus of Tehuantepec presents some interesting remains, chief among which we may cite two stone pyramids situated three leagues west of the city of Tehuantepec. One of these measures fifty-five by one hundred and twenty feet at the base and thirty by sixty-six feet on the summit. A grand stairway composed of forty steps and thirty feet in width leads up the western slope. The summit is also made accessible by smaller stairways on the north and south sides. The lower of the four terraces composing the structure, is perpendicular; the others have inclined walls. On the face of the second terrace were four ranges of flat stones, one above another, extending entirely around the pyramid and furnishing a series of shelves, devoted no doubt to some sacred or sacrificial use. The whole structure was plastered with a cement, colored brilliantly by red ochre. The adjoining pyramid presents an architectural novelty in its gracefully curved sides. Castañeda has sketched and Dupaix described it. The height of the pyramid is over fifty feet while its general dimensions are about the same as those of its neighbor. In close proximity to the pyramids, altar-like structures were observed, one of which was composed of eight circular stones, like mill-stones, placed one above another. The base measured ten and a half feet, but the summit only four and a half feet; the height measures twelve feet.[518] Numerous earthen tumuli resembling those of the Mississippi Valley were observed by the German traveler Müller, scattered over the region, especially to the south-east.[519] The most important group of ruins in Oajoca is that at Mitla, situated about thirty miles south-east of the capital of the State. This is probably the finest group of remains north of the isthmus of Tehauntepec. Still they are not purely Nahua in their style, being, according to tradition, the work of the Zapotecs. This group has been described several times by explorers, whose accounts have differed considerably in value. The most important of these are the descriptions and drawings by Dupaix and Castañeda, made in 1806, and the description and valuable photographs by Charnay, the latest explorer of this group, whose work was performed in 1859.[520]
The mitla ruins are distributed into four groups of buildings (generally called palaces or temples) and two pyramids. The principal edifice is described as follows: three low oblong mounds only six or eight feet high but surmounted by stone buildings, enclose a court. The court measures 130 by 120 feet. The eastern and western buildings are in a fallen and ruined condition. The northern building, however, presents a singular example of ancient grandeur. The southern portion measures 36 by 130 feet, and the northern 61 feet square. The edifice is about eighteen feet high, having walls varying from four to nine feet in thickness. The accompanying cut, a photographic reduction of Charnay’s photograph, gives a correct idea of the western façade of the northern building.[521]
The walls of this edifice are constructed in a somewhat novel manner, their interior portions being nothing more than clay intermixed with stones, thus furnishing a poor substitute for the cement and stone filling in the inner parts of Yucatanic walls. However, the exterior facing of the walls is of hewn stone blocks cut in different forms and sizes, and so set in relation to each other as to present examples of perhaps the finest variety of grecques found in any structure in the world.[522] Two layers of large stone blocks form the base of the palace, from which rises buttresses and a framework of stone, filled in with panels of mosaic, in patterns as described. We pronounce these grecque patterns mosaics, because of the manner of their structure. They are not of the nature of sculpture, since each pattern, with all its regularity, is composed of small brick-shaped blocks of stone built into the wall, mosaic-like, thus forming the graceful patterns shown in the cut. No trace of mortar has been found at Mitla. The inner surface of the wall in the northern building was smoothly plastered without any ornament. Six round stone columns standing in line occupy the centre of the apartment, and no doubt supported a roof of wood or stone, but more probably of the former.[523] The cut in Baldwin’s work, copied by Bancroft showing the interior of the apartment and the six columns, conveys an incorrect impression as to the form of the columns and the character of the walls, as is proven by Charnay’s photograph.[524] The façades of the inner court of the northern wing of the palace are finished with mosaics of great beauty. Four or five feet of the wall is plain at the bottom except that the plastering was evidently frescoed in various colors. The remainder of the wall is decorated with bands of mosaic grecques, as shown in the cut, which is a fac-simile of Charnay’s photograph engraven for Mr. Bancroft’s work. We should not fail to note the use of immense stones in the base, framework and lintels of the southern wing of the building. One of these is of granite, sixteen or nineteen feet long, with the pattern of the adjacent grecques sculptured on its face. None of the other buildings at Mitla present any architectural contrasts to the one already described, and require no special attention. Under a temple on the south-west side of the one we have just referred to, is a subterranean gallery, constructed in the form of a cross. The opening is at the base of the mound upon which the temple stands. The arms of the cross pointing toward the East, North and West, are each twelve feet long, five and a half feet wide, and six and a half feet high. The southern arm is, however, about twenty feet long, and not more than four feet high throughout most of its length. Near the centre of the cross (which lies directly under the centre of the temple above) a flight of four steps descends in the southern arm of the cross to a lower level, so that the southern arm of the passage is somewhat lower than the others. The entire subterranean chamber was roofed with large flat stones reaching from side to side. The walls, besides being painted red, were ornamented with panels of mosaic, but of a ruder style than that of the superstructure, which is suggestive of an earlier period in the growth of the art. A circular pillar resting on a square base, and called by the natives “the pillar of death,” because of the belief entertained among them that whoever embraced it would immediately die, supports the large flagstone which covers the intersection of the galleries. An immense fortification over a mile in circumference and with stone walls six feet thick and eighteen feet high crowns the summit of a hill, which stands three-fourths of a league south-west of Mitla. The place was inaccessible except on the side toward the village where the wall was double. Castañeda has delineated and Bancroft copied the plan of this fortress.[525]
