“Not the least perplexing thing about La Casa de las Monjas is the plain evidence that what now meets our eyes as a symmetrical whole is, in fact, the result of several different periods of building. The principal structure has been built in stages—for all the world as a swallow year after year builds one nest on top of the previous one. And the annexes evidently were built at various times, as the need for them arose. The whole base of the building is buried in debris, which detracts from the true and lovely lines of the architecture. I have excavated a trench part-way around, to clear out this rubbish, and the trench reveals the fact that La Casa de las Monjas has served as a dwelling-place for many people, or that many lived near by even long after the place had lost its sacred significance and its very name and purpose were no longer known.
“Without danger of contradiction, I think we may in fancy reconstruct this Nunnery, in the order of its building. The first structure was a single, rectangular unit about one hundred feet in length. A later builder caused it to be entirely filled with great stones and rubble and cement, so that it formed a solid base or foundation. More masonry was then erected to the same height, on three sides, to enlarge this base area, and upon the whole was erected a building ninety feet long and one third as wide, leaving a flat promenade twenty-five feet wide all around, from which there is a delightful view of the surrounding country. We have dug through the masonry of the sub-structures and into the old, original building which was filled in with stone-work to provide a support for the later and upper buildings, so that our theories are substantiated that far at least.
“To reach the second structure, whose floor is thirty-four feet above-ground, a great stone stairway of forty steps was erected, up which twenty men might march abreast. If they were men of our day they must surely come tumbling down again, for the steps are each nine inches high but with very narrow treads, built for bare-footed or sandaled folk and not for clodhopper boots or shoes.
“A third and still smaller structure—now little more than a jumble of stones, except for a part of one façade and a doorway—was built atop the second temple and served by another grand and steep stairway, a continuation of the first. This topmost temple was rich in carved stones, taken, in all probability, from the oft-ravaged older city. The various annexes were built on to or adjacent to the first and largest building. All this the reader will see from the illustrations opposite [page 65] and page 69 [missing]. The custom of enlarging Maya temples by such methods as just described was not uncommon. Perhaps it indicated growing power or population. Surely it indicated long residence.
“The main building, constituting the second story, has five doorways on the south side and one doorway at each end, and contains many chambers and intercommunicating doorways. The end rooms extend clear across the building. The central rooms are long and narrow, each with three doorways. There are also very many shallow alcoves, scarcely more than niches, which may have contained idols or scrolls—some say books. The center portion is solid masonry, which originally may have contained apartments later filled with stone to provide support for the third story.
“The entire rambling structure is ornamented with symbolistic carvings and murals in a profusion of designs, many of them of matchless beauty in inspiration and execution. The façade of the main building is twenty-five feet in height, with two handsome stone cornices extending its whole length. The eastern façade in particular is crowded with ornamentation. The dominant motif is the face of the god Kukul Can—symbolic masks with upturned snouts which some observers have called ‘elephant trunks.’ The same masks are seen again and again in all these old ruins, but in many cases the projecting snouts have been broken off by vandals; indeed, a special zeal has at some time been devoted to this particular destruction. Linking the masks and carrying the whole in a carefully planned and balanced decorative series are geometrical designs and figures. Above the broad band of the upper cornice and carved in deep relief are geometrical stone screens not inferior to those of the Moors or of India.
“Over the main doorway are two bands of small, undeciphered hieroglyphs, above which project six bold and gracefully curved ornaments. From them, we may imagine, once hung a costly curtain, heavy with embroidery. And still higher above the doorway, interrupting the geometrical sculptures of the whole façade, is a horseshoe-shaped frame within which may still be seen a badly defaced seated figure with feathered head-dress. The lintels over the classic doorways are of huge perfectly cut and polished stones, each bearing a multiplicity of clear-cut glyphs which, like many things in this City of the Sacred Well, tenaciously hold their secrets.
“The Nunnery stands a monument of grace and beauty whose charm is at once evident to any beholder, and doubly so to him who perceives how closely in every line and dimension, yet how subtly, it accords with our modern ideas and rules of good design. But nowhere else in the world is there anything like it. Unique, distinctive, it is characteristic only of this ancient culture. The cut facing [page 65], representing one of the best of my many photographic attempts, tells all that a photograph can, but it cannot begin to convey the beauty of this masterpiece. In the great main hall were once many colorful paintings upon the walls and ceilings, still indicated by bits of color here and there or by an interrupted broad band of black or red. And in the various rooms were paintings, nearly all now obliterated. They seem to have reached quite lately their critical age, for many that were almost perfect as recently as twenty years ago are faded or chipped now. In a few years they will be gone forever, and for this reason I have taken pains to obtain the most faithful possible copies of all of them. These Maya paintings represent several periods of culture. Some are childishly crude. Many are of an excellence of line and balance and color not inferior to the best of modern art. Some even are drawn in a most pleasingly free and sketchy manner which so exquisitely portrays an idea without unnecessary detail that one almost expects to see scrawled in the lower right hand corner the signature of some well-known modern artist.
“The eastern or ground-level portion of the added basic structure contains many rooms entered by way of six wide outer doorways.
“Near the main building are two smaller detached ones, the more interesting being known as the Iglesia or Church. It is small in comparison with the bulk of La Casa de las Monjas, being but twenty-six feet long, half as wide, and thirty-two feet high. It has three cornices and the principal decoration consists of two seated human figures over the doorway. Hardly a square inch of its surface is undecorated. Formerly it was stuccoed, or plastered, and painted. Much of the original color still clings to the crevices and interstices of its carved walls and it is evident that new layers of stucco were added from time to time and new paint in appropriate colors. Such layers of stucco and color may be seen where the stone has been chipped, with the colors sometimes varying from those of the early coats.