PLAN OF UXMALView larger image.
PLAN OF UXMAL
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UXMAL—CASA DEL GOBERNADOR.
In the southern central portion of the space comprised in the plan is the edifice at A, known as the Casa del Gobernador, or Governor's House. It may be remarked here that the names by which the different structures are known have been given them, generally by the natives, but sometimes by visitors, in accordance with what they have fancied to have been their original use. There is only a very slight probability that in a few cases they may have hit upon a correct designation, although many of the names, like that of this building, are certainly sufficiently appropriate.[V-11]The terraced mound that supports the Governor'shouse demands our first attention. Its base, with its irregularities in form on the west and south, is shown on the plan by the dotted linesa,b,c,d: and measures on its perfect sides,ab, andbc, about six hundred feet. At a height of three feet from the ground a terrace, or promenade, mostly destroyed at the time of observation and not indicated on the plan, extends round the mound. From this rises the second terrace to a height of twenty feet, supporting a platform whose sides measure five hundred and forty-five feet. Somewhat west of the centre of this platform rises the third terrace, nineteen feet high and supporting the summit platforme,f,g,h, whose dimensions are about one hundred by three hundred and sixty feet, and whose height above the original surface of the ground is something over forty feet.[V-12]The material of the body of this mound is rough fragments of limestone thrown together without any order; the terraces are supported, however, at the sides by solid walls built of regular blocks of hewn limestone carefully laid in mortar nearly as hard as the rock. So far as can be determined from the drawings, these walls are not perpendicular, but incline slightly inward towards the top, and the corners are not square but carefully rounded. It is not improbable that the platformswere also paved originally with square blocks, as M. Charnay believes, although now covered with soil and vegetation. By means of an excavation, solid stone was found in the interior above the surface level, showing that the builders had taken advantage of a natural elevation as a labor-saving expedient in heaping up this massive artificial stone mound. There are no traces of stairways by which access was had to the second platform,[V-13]but a long inclined plane without steps, one hundred feet wide, on the southern side, apparently furnished the only means of ascent. From the second platform, however, a regular stairway of thirty-five steps, one hundred and thirty feet wide, leads up to the summit ati, being in the centre of the eastern side, or front.
Ground Plan of the Casa del Gobernador.
Ground Plan of the Casa del Gobernador.
Section of the Casa del Gobernador.
Section of the Casa del Gobernador.
The upper platform supports, and forms a promenade thirty feet wide round the Casa del Gobernador, which is a building three hundred and twenty-two feet long, thirty-nine feet wide, and twenty-six feet high,[V-14]built of stone and mortar. A central wall divides the interior longitudinally into two nearly equal corridors, which, divided again by transverse partition walls, form two parallel rows of rooms extending the whole length of the building. The arrangement of these rooms will be best understood by a reference to the accompanying ground plan from Mr Stephens.[V-15]The two central apartments are aboutsixty feet long and twelve feet wide; the others, except the two in the recesses, are twelve by twenty-five feet. Those of the front corridor are twenty-three feet high, while in the rear they are only twenty-two, authorities differing somewhat, however, on this point. There are two doorways in the rear, one on each end, and thirteen on the front; with nine interior doorways exactly opposite the same number on the exterior. The rear, or western wall, except for a short distance at each end, is nine feet thick and perfectly solid, as was proved by an excavation; the transverse walls corresponding with the two recesses are of about the same thickness; and all the other walls are between two and three feet thick. The stone for the facings of the whole building is cut in smooth blocks nearly cubic in form and of varying but nowhere exactly stated dimensions; but the mass of the structure, as is proven by M. Charnay's photograph, is an agglomeration of rough, irregular fragments of stone in mortar. The construction of the whole will be understood by a glance at the cut, which represents a sectionof the building at the central doorway in very nearly its true proportions, although the proper size and cubical form of the blocks are not observed.[V-16]At about mid-height of each room the side walls begin to approach each other, one layer of stones overlapping the one below it, until they are only one foot apart, when a number of blocks, longer than usual, are laid across the top, serving by means of the mortar which holds them in place and the weight of the superimposed masonry, as key-stones to this arch of the true American type. The projecting corners of the overlapping blocks are beveled off so that the ceiling presents two plane stone surfaces nearly forming an acute angle at the top. Above and between these arches all is solid masonry to the flat roof, giving to the apartments the air of galleries excavated in the solid mass, rather than enclosed by walls. The top of each doorway is formed by a stout beam of zapote-wood which has to bear the weight of the stone-work above. One of these lintels in the southern apartment, ten feet long, twenty-one inches wide, and ten inches thick, is elaborately carved; the rest, not only in this building, but in all at Uxmal, are plain.[V-17]Many of them are broken and fallen. It is to the breaking of these wooden lintels that is to be attributed nearly all the dilapidation observable about this ruin, especially over the outer doorways. Some special motive must have influenced the builders to use wood in preference to the more durable stone, and this motive may be supposed to have been the rarity and value of the zapote, which is said not to grow in this part of the state. The only traces preserved of the means by which these doorways were originally closed are the remains, on the inside of some of them near the top, of rings, orhooks, which may have served as hinges, or more probably for the support of a bar from which to suspend curtains. The dimensions of the doorways are not stated, but they are about ten feet high and seven feet wide. They are the only openings into or between the apartments, there being absolutely no windows, chimneys, or air-holes. Across the ceilings from side to side at about mid-height stretch small wooden beams, whose ends are built into the stone-work. The only suggestions respecting their use are that they served to support the ceilings while in process of construction, and that they served for the suspension of hammocks.[V-18]The inner surface of the rooms is that of the plain smooth stone blocks, except in one or two of them where a very thin coating of fine white plaster is noticed. There is no trace of painting, sculpture, or other attempt at decoration. The floors and roof are covered with a hard cement. Nothing further worthy of particular notice demands our attention in the interior of the Governor's House, except the small apartments corresponding with the recesses near each end of the building. In these the sides of the ceiling instead of beginning to approach each other by means of overlapping blocks at mid-height of the room, begin at or near the floor, thus leaving no perpendicular walls whatever. The explanation of this seems to be, so far as can be judged from Catherwood's drawing and Charnay's photograph, that originally an open passage about twenty feet wide at the bottom, narrowing to two or three feet at the top, and twenty-four feet high, extended completely through the building from front to rear at each of the recesses, and that afterwards this passage was divided into two small apartments by three partition walls, a small door being left in the front and rear.[V-19]
South End of the Governor's House.
South End of the Governor's House.
Ornament of the Casa del Gobernador.—Fig. 1.
Ornament of the Casa del Gobernador.—Fig. 1.
Ornament of the Casa del Gobernador.—Fig. 2.
Ornament of the Casa del Gobernador.—Fig. 2.
The Elephant's Trunk.—Fig. 3.
The Elephant's Trunk.—Fig. 3.
It now only remains to notice the exterior of the walls. A cornice just above the doorway, at something over one third of the height of the building, surrounds the entire structure, and another cornice is found near the top. Below the lower cornice the walls present the plain surface of the smoothly cut cubes of limestone, no traces of plaster or paint appearing. Above the cornice the walls are coveredwith elegant and complicated sculpture. The preceding cut[V-20]presents a view of the south end, and gives an idea of the sculptured portion of the wall, although it must be remembered that both the ends and rear are much less elaborately decorated than the front. The whole surface is divided into squares, orpanels, filled alternately with frets, or grecques, and diamond lattice-work, with specially elaborate ornaments over each doorway, in connection with some of which are characters presumably hieroglyphic. The three cuts[V-21]show the ornamentation over the central front doorway. The first represents what seems to have been a human figure seated and surmounted by a lofty plumed head-dress. These human statues occurred in several places along the front, probably over each door, but few fragments remained to be seen by Europeans, and most of these have long since entirely disappeared. The second cut represents that part of the decoration extending above that before pictured to the upper cornice along the top of the wall. The central portion of this ornament is a curved projection, supposed, by more than one traveler, to be modeled after the trunk of an elephant, of which a profile view is shown in the third cut. It projects nineteen inches from the surface of the wall. This protruding curve occurs more frequently on this and other buildings at Uxmal than any other decoration, and usually with the same or similar accompaniments, which may befancied to represent the features of a monster, of which this forms the nose. It occurs especially on the ornamented and rounded corners; being sometimes reversed in its position, and having, with few exceptions, the point broken off, probably by the natives, from superstitious motives, to prevent the long-nosed monster from walking abroad at night.[V-22]The ornaments are cut on square blocks, which are inserted in the wall, one block containing only a part of the ornamental design. Of course, a verbal description fails utterly in conveying any proper idea of this front, whose sculptured decorations, if less elaborate and complicated than some others in Yucatan, are surpassed by none in elegant grandeur. I append however, in a note, some quotations respecting this façade, and take leave of the Casa del Gobernador with a mention of the 'red hand,' whose imprint is found on stones in all parts of the building. Mr Stephens believes that it was made by the pressure of a small human hand, smeared with red paint, upon the surface of the wall.[V-23]
This magnificent palace, whose description I have given, may be regarded as a representative, in its general features and many of its details, of the ancient Maya structures, very few of which, however, are so well preserved as this. Consequently, over this type of ruins—long, low, narrow buildings, with flat roofs, divided into a double line of small rooms, with triangular-arched ceilings, plain interior walls, and cement floors; the whole supported by a stone mound, ascended by a broad stairway—I shall be able in future to pass more briefly, simply noting such points of contrast with the Casa del Gobernador as may occur. Still some of the other buildings of Uxmal have received more attention from visitors, and consequently will afford better illustrations of some of the common features than the one already described.
UXMAL—CASA DE TORTUGAS.
On the north-west corner of the second platform of the same mound that supports the Governor's House, and lying in a direction perpendicular to that building, is the small structure marked B on the plan, and known as the Casa de Tortugas, or Turtle House. It is ninety-four feet long, thirty-four feet wide, and, as nearly as can be estimated by Charnay's photograph, about twenty feet high. The roof, in an insecure condition at the time of Mr Stephens' first visit, had fallen in before the second, filling up the interior, concerningwhich consequently nothing is known. The central portion of the southern wall, corresponding with the three doorways on that side, had also fallen, and on the northern side was ready to fall, the wooden lintel of the only doorway being broken. At the time of Charnay's visit neither the centre nor western end of the northern wall remained standing. The exterior walls below the lower cornice are plain, as in the Casa del Gobernador, but between the cornices, instead of the complicated sculpture of the former building, there appears a simple and elegant line of round columns standing close together and encircling the whole edifice. Each of these columns is composed of two or three pieces of stone one upon another, and although presenting outwardly a half-round surface, they are undoubtedly square on the side that is built into the wall. Above the upper cornice is a row of turtles, occurring at regular intervals, sculptured each on a square block which projects from the wall; hence the name of the building. It is noted as a remarkable circumstance that no stairway leads up the terrace to this building from the surface below, or from it to the Governor's House above.[V-23]
At different points on the second, or grand, platform of the mound supporting the Casa del Gobernador are traces of structures which once stood there, but insufficient in every case, except in that of the Tortugas, to give any idea of their original nature. Standing at the foot of one of these old foundation walls three hundred feet long, fifteen feet wide, and three feet high, on the south side of the platform, atj, is a range of broken round columns, each five feet high and eighteen inches in diameter.[V-24]
On the same platform, about eighty feet eastward of the central stairway, atk, is a round stone standing eight feet above the ground in a leaning position. It is rudely formed, has no sculpture on its surface, and is surrounded by a small square enclosure two stones high. The natives call itpicote, 'stone of punishment,' or 'whipping-post.' Its prominent and central position in front of the magnificent palace, indicates its great importance in the eyes of the ancient Mayas, and Mr Stephens thinks it may be a phallus, not without reason, since apparent traces of an ancient phallic worship will be found not unfrequently among the Yucatan ruins.[V-25]
UXMAL—PICOTE AND IDOL.
Sixty feet further eastward, atl, was a circular mound of earth and stones about sixty feet in height, opened by Mr Stephens, who brought to light a double-headed stone animal, three feet long and two feet high, which had been buried there, very probably for the purpose of concealment. Being too heavy for convenient removal, it was left standing in the same position as when buried, and has there been noticed by several subsequent observers. Its sculpture is rude, and but slightly damaged by time. It is shown in the cut on the next page, with the picote, the stairway, and the front of the Governor's House in the distance.[V-26]One hundred and thirty feet from thistwo-headed idol, in a direction not stated, Mr Stephens found a structure twenty feet square at the base, from which were dug out two sculptured heads, apparently portraits. The only objects of interest which remain to be noticed in connection with thisplatform, or the mound-structure of which it forms a part, are two excavations, supposed to have been originally cisterns. The entrance, or mouth, to each is a circular opening, eighteen inches in diameter, lined with regular blocks of cut stone, and descending three feet, vertically, from the surface of the platform, before it begins to widen into a dome-shaped chamber. The dimensions of the chambers could not be ascertained because they were nearly filled with rubbish, but similar chambers are of frequent occurrence throughout the city of Uxmal and vicinity, several of which were found unencumbered with débris, and in perfect preservation. They were all dome-shaped, or rather of the shape of a well-formed hay-stack, as Mr Stevens expresses it, the bottoms being somewhat contracted. The walls and floor were carefully plastered. One of these cisterns measured ten and a half feet deep and seventeen and a half feet in diameter.[V-27]
Two-headed Idol at Uxmal.
Two-headed Idol at Uxmal.
UXMAL—CISTERNS AND PYRAMID.
At the south-west corner of the Casa del Gobernador, and even intrenching on the terraces that support it, is the pyramid E, to which strangely enough no name has been given. It has in fact received but very slight attention; one short visit by Mr Stephens, during which he mounted to the summit with a force of Indians, being the only one recorded, although it is barely mentioned by others. This pyramid measures two hundred by three hundred feet at the base, and its height is sixty-five feet. At the top is a square platform, whose sides are each seventy-five feet. The area of this platform is flat, composed of rough stones, and has no traces whatever of ever having supported any building. Its sides, however, three feet high perpendicularly, are of hewn blocks of stone, and smooth with ornamented corners. Below this summit platform, for a distance of ten or twelve feet, the sides of the pyramid are faced with sculptured stone,the ornaments being chiefly grecques, like those on the Governor's House, having one of the immense faces with projecting teeth at the centre of the western side. At this point Mr Stephens attempted an excavation in the hope of discovering interior apartments, but the only result was to prostrate himself with an attack of fever, which obliged him to quit Uxmal. Just below this sculptured upper border, some fifteen feet below the top, a narrow terrace extends round the four sides of the pyramid. Concerning the surface below this terrace, we only know that it is encased in stone, and would very probably reveal additional ornamentation if subjected to a more minute examination.[V-28]The pyramid F, still farther south-west, is two hundred feet long and one hundred and twenty feet wide at the base, being about fifty feet high. These particulars, together with the fact that a stairway leads up the northern slope, to one of the typical Yucatan buildings, twenty by one hundred feet and divided into three apartments, are absolutely all that has been recorded of this structure, which, like its more imposing companion pyramid, has not been thought worthy of a name. The reader will be able to form a more consistent conjecture respecting its original appearance after reading a description in the following pages of the structure at D, which presents some points of apparent similarity to its more modest southern neighbor.[V-29]
UXMAL—CASA DE PALOMAS.
Northward from the last pyramid, and connected with it by a courtyard one hundred feet long andeighty-five feet wide, with ranges of undescribed ruins on the east and west, are the buildings at G, built round and enclosing a courtyard one hundred and eighty feet long and one hundred and fifty feet wide, entered through an archway in the centre of the northern and southern buildings. This courtyard has a picote in the centre, like that before the Governor's House, but fallen. These buildings are in an advanced state of ruin and no details are given respecting any of them except the northern one, which presents one remarkable feature. Along the centre of the roof from east to west throughout the whole length of two hundred and forty feet, is a peculiar wall rising in peaks like saw-teeth. These are nine in number, each about twenty-seven feet long at the base, between fifteen and twenty feet high, and three feet thick. Each is pierced with many oblong openings arranged in five or six horizontal rows, one above another like the windows in the successive stories of a modern building, or like those of a pigeon house, or Casa de Palomas, by which name it is known. Traces yet remain which show that originally these strange elevations were covered with stucco ornaments, the only instance of stucco decorations in Uxmal. Of this group of structures, including the two courtyards and the pyramid beyond, notwithstanding their ruined condition, Mr Stephens remarks that "they give a stronger impression of departed greatness than anything else in this desolate city."[V-30]
Respecting the remains marked 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13,14, and 15, on the plan, north of the Pyramid and Casa de Palomas, and west of the Casa del Gobernador, all that can be said is embodied in the following quotation: "A vast range of high, ruined terraces, facing east and west, nearly eight hundred feet long at the base, and called the Campo Santo. On one of these is a building of two stories, with some remains of sculpture, and in a deep and overgrown valley at the foot, the Indians say, was the burial-place of this ancient city; but, though searching for it ourselves, and offering a reward to them for the discovery, we never found in it a sepulchre."[V-31]
Crossing over now to the eastward of the Governor's House, we find a small group of ruins in the south-eastern corner of the rectangle. The one marked 6 on the plan is known as the Casa de la Vieja, or Old Woman's House, so named from a statue that was found lying near its front. The building stands on the summit of a small pyramid and its walls were just ready to fall at the time of the survey. Of the other structures of the group, 5 and 7, no further information is given than that which may be gathered from the plan. Along the line marked 4, 4, 4, are slight traces of a continuous wall, indicating that Uxmal may have been a walled city, since no careful search has ever been made for such traces in other portions of the city's circumference.[V-32]
UXMAL GYMNASIUM.
To go from the Casa del Gobernador northward to the buildings at C and D, yet to be described, we pass between two parallel walls at H. These two parallel structures are solid masses of rough stones faced on all four sides with smoothly cut blocks, and were, sofar as can be determined in their present condition, exactly alike. Each measures thirty by one hundred and twenty-eight feet on the ground, and they are seventy feet apart, their height not being given. The fronts which face each other were covered with sculptured decorations, now mostly fallen, including two entwined serpents; while from the centre of each of these façades projected originally a stone ring about four feet in diameter, fixed in the wall by means of a tenon. Both are broken, and the fragments for the most part lost. A similar building in a better state of preservation will be noticed among the ruins of Chichen Itza, in describing which a cut of one of the stone rings will be given. It is easy to imagine that the grand promenade between the northern and southern palaces, or temples, was along a line that passed between these walls, and that these sculptured fronts and rings were important in connection with religious rites and processions of priests. The chief entrance to the northern buildings is in a line with this passage, and it seems strange that we find no corresponding stairway leading up the southern terrace to the front of the Casa de Tortugas.[V-33]
UXMAL—CASA DE MONJAS.
Between two and three hundred yards north from the Casa del Gobernador, is the Casa de Monjas, or Nunnery, marked C on the plan. This is perhaps the most wonderful edifice, or collection of edifices, in Yucatan, if not the finest specimen of aboriginal architecture and sculpture in America. The supporting mound, whose base is indicated by the dotted linesm,n,o,pis in general terms three hundred and fifty feet square, and nineteen feet high, its sides very nearly facing the cardinal points. The southern, or front, slope of the mound, about seventy feet wide, risesin three grades, or terraces, three, twelve, and four feet high, and twenty, forty-five, and five feet wide, respectively, from the base. There are some traces of a wide central stairway leading up to the second terrace on this side, but none of the steps remain in place.
On this platform stand four of the typical Yucatan edifices built round a courtyard, with unequal intervals between them at the corners. The southern building is two hundred and seventy-nine feet long, twenty-eight feet wide, and eighteen feet high; the northern building, two hundred and sixty-four feet long, twenty-eight feet wide, and twenty-five feet high; the eastern, one hundred and fifty-eight by thirty-five feet, and twenty-two feet high; the western, one hundred and seventy-three by thirty-five feet, and twenty feet high.[V-34]The northern building stands on aterrace of its own, which rises about twenty feet above the general level of the main platform on which the others stand. The court formed by the four edifices measures two hundred and fifty-eight by two hundred and fourteen feet. It is two feet and a half lower than the foundations of the eastern, western, and southern buildings, and traces of low steps may yet be seen running the whole length of the sides. Its area is paved with stone, much worn by long usage. M. Waldeck, by diligent research or by an effort of his imagination, found that each of the forty-three thousand six hundred and sixty blocks composing the pavement was six inches square, and had the figure of a turtle sculptured on its upper surface. Stephens could find no traces of the turtles, and believes that the pavement was originally covered with cement.[V-35]In the centre are the fragments of a rude column, picote, or phallus, like those found in connection with the Casa del Gobernador and Casa de Palomas. M. Charnay also found traces of a straight path with raised borders leading north and south across the centre, and also two of the dome-shaped cisterns already described.[V-36]
The situation of the four structures forming the quadrangle, and the division of each into apartments, are shown in the accompanying ground plan.[V-37]
Ground Plan of the Nunnery.
Ground Plan of the Nunnery.
Interior of Room—Casa de Monjas.
Interior of Room—Casa de Monjas.
It will be noticed that the northern building of the Nunnery does not stand exactly in the same direction as the sides of the platform or of the other edifices, an arrangement which detracts somewhat from the symmetry of the group. Each of the four buildings is divided longitudinally into two parallel ranges of apartments, arranged very much like those of the Governor's House, with doorways opening on the interior court. The only exterior doorways are on the front of the southern building and on the ends of the northern; these, however, only afford access to theouter range of rooms, which do not communicate with the interior. In only one instance do more than two rooms communicate with each other, and that is in the centre of the eastern building, where are two communicating apartments, the largest in the Nunnery, each thirteen by thirty-three feet, with an ante-room at each end measuring nine by thirteen feet. All the doorways of this suite are decorated with sculpture, the only instance of interior stone-carving in Uxmal. The cut on the next page shows the inside of one of the larger rooms of this suite, and also gives an excellent idea of the interior of all the structures of Yucatan.[V-38]The rooms of the Casa de Monjas, eighty-eight in number, like some in the Casa del Gobernador, are plastered with a thin coat of hard white material like plaster of Paris. Those of the southern building average twenty-four feet long, ten feet wide, and seventeen feet high. They all present the same general features of construction—angular-arched ceilings, wooden lintels, stone rings, or hinges, on the inside of the doorways, holes in the sloping ceilings for hammock-timbers, entire absence of any openings except the doors—that have been previously described.[V-39]The platform on which the buildings stand forms a narrow promenade, only five or six feet in width, roundeach, both on the exterior and on the court. The entrance to the court is by a gateway, atvon the general plan, in the centre of the southern building. It is ten feet and eight inches wide and about fourteen feet high, the top being formed by the usual triangular arch, and the whole being similar to the passages through the Casa del Gobernador before the latter were walled up. Opposite this gateway, atw, a stairway ninety-five feet wide leads up to the upper terrace which supports the northern building. On each side of this stairway, atx,y, on the slope of the terrace, is a ruin of the usual construction, in which six small apartments may be traced. The dilapidation of these buildings is so great that it is impossible to ascertain whether they were independent structures or formed a part of the terrace itself, a mode of construction of which we shall find some specimens in Yucatan, and even at Uxmal. A noticeable peculiarity in the northern building is that, wherever the outer walls are fallen, the sculptured surface of an inner wall is disclosed, showing that the edifice in its present form was built over an older structure.
Nothing remains to be said respecting the general plan and construction of the Nunnery, or of the interior of the apartments which compose it: and I now come to the exterior walls. The sides and ends of each building are, like those already described, plain and unplastered below the cornice, which extends round the whole circumference just above the doorways. Above this cornice the whole surface, over twenty-four thousand square feet for the four buildings, is covered with elegant and elaborate sculptured decorations. The four interior façades fronting on the court are pronounced by all beholders the chef-d'œuvres of aboriginal decorative art in America, being more chaste and artistic, and at the same time less complicated and grotesque, than any other fronts in Yucatan. All have been carefully studied, sketched, or photographed. No two of them are alike, oreven similar. The outer fronts received somewhat less care at the hands of the native builders, and consequently less attention from modern visitors, being moreover much more seriously affected by the ravages of time and the elements.
Southern Court Façade—Casa de Monjas.
Southern Court Façade—Casa de Monjas.
Detail of Southern Court Façade.
Detail of Southern Court Façade.
I begin with the southern building, showing in the accompanying engraving the eastern third of its court façade, the other portions being precisely like that which is represented. Except over the doorways the space between the cornices is occupied by diamond lattice-work and vertical columns, small portions being left, however, entirely plain. Some of the columns have central moldings corresponding nearly in form to the cornices.[V-40]The central gateway is not shown in the engraving, but there is no special ornamentation in connection with it, its border being of lattice-work, according to Waldeck, or of plain blocks, according to Charnay, contrary to what might be expected over the only entrance to so grand a court. The next engraving shows a portion of the same façadeon a larger scale, including the ornament which is repeated over each door. This ornament seems to represent a small house with a roof of thatch or tiles, having a human figure seated in a niche in the wall, which corresponds with the doorway of the house. This seated statue had disappeared before the visits of later explorers. That a statue once occupied the niche there can be no doubt. Whether M. Waldeck sketched it from actual observation or from the report of the natives, is not quite so clear. The last-named writer advances two original and somewhat remarkable theories respecting these small houses; first, that they may be taken as a representation of the houses actually occupied by the common people at the time Uxmal was built; and second, that they are identical with the Aztec signcalli, 'house,' from which he derives an argument respecting the probable age of the building, which will be noticed in its place. M. Charnay calls this front theFaçade des Abeilles, or Beefront, while M. Waldeck terms the building the Temple of the Asterisms. The exterior, or southern, front of this building is similar to the northern, but somewhat plainer, having, however, the same houses and niches over the doorways.[V-41]
Eastern Court Façade—Casa de Monjas.
Eastern Court Façade—Casa de Monjas.
Detail of Eastern Court Façade.
Detail of Eastern Court Façade.
The court façade of the eastern building, which has been called the Sun front, and also the Egyptian front, is perhaps more tasteful in its sculptured ornaments than either of the other three. The southern half of this façade is represented in the engraving. The ornaments over the central doorway and at the corners consist of the immense grotesque masks, with the curved projecting tusks noticed on the Casa del Gobernador; but the remaining surface is covered with regular diamond lattice-work, while in connection with each of the cornices is a line of stone blocks with rounded faces, resembling short columns. Over this lattice-work, but not entirely concealing it, aresix peculiar and graceful ornaments, placed at regular intervals, four of them surmounting doorways. One of these, precisely like all the rest, is shown on an enlarged scale in the engraving. It consists of eight parallel horizontal bars, increasing in length as they approach the upper cornice, and each terminating at either end in a serpent's or monster's head with open jaws. A human face with a peculiar head-dress, large ear-pendants, and tongue hanging from the mouth, looks down from the centre of the upper bars. This face is fancied by Waldeck to represent the sun, and something in its surroundings strikes Charnay as partaking of the Egyptian style; hence the names that have been applied to this façade. M. Viollet-le-Duc attempts to prove the development of the architecturalideas embodied in the Maya edifices from an original structure of wood. His use of this claimed peculiarity will be more appropriately spoken of hereafter, but his illustration of the idea in connection with this eastern front, is certainly striking as shown in the annexed cut.[V-42]The southern end of this buildingis shown in one of Charnay's photographs, and, together with a small portion of the western front, in a drawing by Catherwood. These views show that the ends, and probably all of the rear, are made up of plain wall and lattice-work, with elaborate ornaments at each of the corners.[V-43]
Trace of Original Structure in Wood.
Trace of Original Structure in Wood.
Western Court Façade—Casa de Monjas.
Western Court Façade—Casa de Monjas.
I now pass on to the opposite, or western building, known as the Serpent Temple, whose court façade is shown in the engraving. At the time of the visits of Catherwood and Charnay a large portion of thisfront had fallen, and the standing portions only were represented in their drawings and photographs, no attempt being made in the former at restoration. In 1835, however, according to the testimony of both M. Waldeck and Sr Peon, proprietor of Uxmal, it was standing nearly intact; I have consequently preferred to reproduce Waldeck's drawing of a portion of this façade, especially as the portions shown by Catherwood and Charnay agree almost exactly with this drawing and prove its accuracy. But slight justice can be done to this, the most magnificent and beautiful front in America, by an engraving on so small a scale as I am obliged to employ. Two serpents, each with a monster's head between the open jaws of which a human face appears, and the tail of a rattlesnake placed near and above the head at either end of the building, almost entirely surround the front above the lower cornice, dividing the surface by the folds and interlacing of their bodies into square panels. That is, it seems to have been the aim of the builders to form these panels by the folds of these two mighty serpents, and the work is so described by all visitors, but it appears from an examination of the folds, as shown in the engraving, that the serpent whose head and tail are shown on the right only encloses really the first panel, and that each other panel is surrounded by the endless body of a serpent without head or tail. The scales or feathers on the serpent's body are somewhat more clearly defined than is indicated in the engraving, as is proved by Charnay's photograph. The surface of this wall is filled with grecques and lattice-work similar to those of the Governor's House, but much more complicated; and each panel has one or more human faces among its decorations, while several of them have full-sized standing human figures. Over each doorway and on the rounded corners of the building, are the usual grotesque decorations, bearing some likeness to three distorted faces or masks placed one above another, and all furnished with the projectingcurves, or hooks, previously compared to elephants' trunks.[V-44]Respecting the ends and rear of this building nothing whatever has been recorded.
The northern building, standing on a terrace twenty feet above the platform which supports the other structures, and consequently overlooking them all, was very probably intended by the builders as the crowning feature of the Casa de Monjas. Its court façade was crowded with sculptured designs, grander, perhaps, and more imposing, but at the same time much less elegant and refined than those of the fronts already described. Apparently from no other motive than to obtain more space on which to exercise their talent for decorative art, and thus to render this front more striking, the builders extended the front wall at regular intervals above the upper cornice, forming thirteen turrets seventeen feet high and ten feet wide,placed generally above the doorways. These turrets, towering about eighty feet above the site of the city, and loaded with elaborate sculpture, must have been a prominent feature of the aboriginal Uxmal. Only four of the turrets remained standing at the time of Stephens' visit, and the wall was otherwise much dilapidated. The only view is that given in Charnay's photographs, none of the turrets being complete at the time of his visit. The background of the sculpture is divided into panels filled with grecques and ornamented lattice-work very similar to that of the Serpent front. Half the doorways are surmounted by niches like those in the southern façade; while over the alternate doorways and on all the corners are seen the immense mask ornaments with the elephant-trunk projection.[V-45]A peculiarity of this building not noticed by any authority, but clearly shown in Charnay's photograph, is that not only are the corners rounded as in the other buildings, but the walls at the corners are not perpendicular either above or below the cornice, inclining inward toward the top at an angle of about seven degrees. Several human figures are noted among the decorations, of ruder execution than others at Uxmal, two of which seem to be playing on musical instruments resembling somewhat a guitar and harp; while a third is sitting with his hands crossed on his breast, and bound by cords.[V-46]All that isknown of the exterior front of this northern building is that among its decorations, which are comparatively plain and simple, are two naked male figures, the condition of whose genital organs indicates the existence of the same phallic rites of which traces have been already noted. With the additional remark that traces of bright-colored paint are still visible in sheltered portions of the sculptured façades, I conclude my description of the so-called Nunnery.[V-47]