ture

Central American architecture is characterized by a fine feeling for
construction, and the execution is at once bold and aesthetically
effective. Amongst the various ruins, some of which represent the
remains of entire cities, while others are no more than groups of
buildings or single buildings, certain types persistently recur. The
commonest of such types are pyramids and galleries. The pyramids are
occasionally built of brick, but most usually of hewn stone with a
covering of finely-carved slabs. Staircases lead up to the top from one
or more sides. Some pyramids are built in steps. Usually the platform on
the top of a pyramid is occupied by buildings, the typical distribution
of which is into two parts, viz. vestibule and sanctuary. In connexion
with the pyramid there are various subsidiary structures, such as
altars, pillars, and sacrificial stones, to meet the requirements of
ritual and worship, besides habitations for officials and
"tennis-courts" for the famous ball-game like that played by the
Mexicans. The tennis-courts always run north and south, and all the
buildings, almost without exception, have a definite orientation to
particular points of the compass. Frequently the pyramids constitute
one of the four sides of a quadrangular enclosure, within which are
contained other pyramids, altars or other buildings of various
dimensions.

The normal type of gallery is an oblong building, of which the front
facing inwards to the enclosure is pierced by doors. These divide it
into a series of rooms, behind which again there may be a second series.
Occasionally the rooms are distributed round a central apartment, but
this is ordinarily done only when a second storey has to be placed above
them. The gallery-buildings may rise to as much as three storeys, the
height, size and shape of the rooms being determined by the exigencies
of vaulting. The principle of the true arch is unknown, so that the
vaults are often of the corbelled kind, the slabs of the side-walls
being made to overlap in succession until there remains only so narrow a
space as may be spanned by a single flat stone. At Mitla, where the
material used in the construction of the buildings was timber instead of
stone, the larger rooms were furnished with stone pillars on which the
beams could rest. The same principle recurs in certain ruins at
Chichenitza. The tops and sides of the doors are often decorated with
carved reliefs and hieroglyphs, and th