and palaces consist of massive masonry
walls, partly of roughly-shaped blocks, and partly of cut-and-carved
stone, and stucco sculpture, with numerous doorways or openings on to
the platform of the pyramid-summit. The interior of the buildings is a
singular vault-like construction, covered with roofs of masonry carried
by the vaulting. These vaults, however, do not embody the principle of
the arch, but rather of the off-set, or lean-to, and are very high in
proportion to their width. From the palace group arises a square tower
of four storeys, about 40 feet in height, forming the centre of the
group of extensive courts, buildings, and facades which surround it,
all built upon the summit of a pyramid some 200 feet square. As in the
Yucatan structures, the lintels over the doorway-openings in the walls
were of wood, and their decay has largely been the cause of the facades
having fallen into ruins, in many places. There are various interior
staircases to these buildings, and the huge and unique reliefs of human
figures are a remarkable feature of the interior. The beautiful figure
known as the Beau Relief is compared to the relief sculptures of
Babylon and Egypt. The material of construction was limestone,
generally in unshaped blocks, not laid in regular courses, but with
large quantities of mortar and stucco. The walls were lavishly painted
and coloured. Indeed, the nature of the building has doubtless obeyed
the character of the stone, which does not lend itself to careful
cutting and carving like the easily-worked trachyte of Mitla. A very
noteworthy structure of this prehistoric city, is the subterranean
passage-way for the stream, which passes down the valley upon whose
slopes the ruins of Palenque are situated. This, of stone-vaulted
construction, after the manner before described, is somewhat less than
1,000 feet long, and the stream still flows through a portion of it. On
every hand the extraordinary vigour of the tropical forest is evident,
and the dense growth of trees, vines, and herbs which cover valley,
pyramid, walls, and roofs, attest the power of the vegetable world.

The prehistoric structures of Yucatan--among the principal of which are
those of Uxmal and Chichen-Ytza--are exceedingly numerous. Indeed, the
traveller in this territory of the Mayas is rarely out of sight of
crumbling pyramid or temple, as he traverses the dense forests of these
curious flat and streamless limestone regions. Whilst most of