File:Incidents of travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan (1858) (14760667621).jpg

Identifier: incidentsoftrave11step (find matches)
Title: Incidents of travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan
Year: 1858 (1850s)
Authors: Stephens, John L, 1805-1852
Subjects: Indians of Central America Indians of Mexico Mayas
Publisher: New York : Harper & Brothers
Contributing Library: Brigham Young University-Idaho, David O. McKay Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University-Idaho

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passa-ges were choked up. We followed several of themwith much toil and disappointment, and at lengthfell into one, low and narrow, along which it wasnecessary to crawl on the hands and feet, and where,from the flame and smoke of the torches, it wasdesperately hot. We at length came to a body ofwater, which, on thrusting the hand into it, wefound to be incrusted with a thin coat of sulphateof lime, that had formed on the top of the water,but decomposed on being brought into the air. Leaving the cave or senote, we continued ram-bling among the ruins. The mounds were all of thesame general character, and the buildings had en-tirely disappeared on all except one; but this wasdifferent from any we had at that time seen, thoughwe afterward found others like it. It stood on a ruined mound about thirty feet high. 136 INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. What the shape of the mound had been it was diffi-cult to make out, but the building was circular. Thefollowing engraving represents this edifice, with the
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^w =S#S DOUBLE ROW OF COLUMNS. 137 mound on which it stands. The exterior is of plainstone, ten feet high to the top of the lower cornice,and fourteen more to that of the upper one. Thedoor faces the west, and over it is a lintel of stone.The outer wall is five feet thick; the door opensinto a circular passage three feet wide, and in thecentre is a cylindrical solid mass of stone, withoutany doorway or opening of any kind. The wholediameter of the building is twenty-five feet, so that,deducting the double width of the wall and passage,this centre mass must be nine feet in thickness.The walls had four or five coats of stucco, and therewere remains of painting, in which red, yellow,blue, and white were distinctly visible. On the southwest side of the building, and on aterrace projecting from the side of the mound, wasa double row of columns eight feet apart, of whichonly eight remained, though probably, from the frag-ments around, there had been more, and, by clear-ing away the trees, m

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