ented in Figure 35. On the
southwest side of it, on a terrace projecting from the mound, was a
double row of columns without capitals, 8 feet apart. There are
indications that this city was old, and that the buildings had been more
than once renewed. Brasseur de Bourbourg classes some of the foundations
at Mayapan with the oldest seen at Palenque and Copan. This point,
however, can not be determined with sufficient accuracy to remove all
doubt. Mayapan may have stood upon the foundations of a very ancient
city which was several times rebuilt, but the city destroyed in 1420
could not have been as old as either Palenque or Copan.

[Illustration: Fig. 35.--Circular Edifice at Mayapan.]

UXMAL.

The ruins of Uxmal have been regarded as the most important in Yucatan,
partly on account of the edifices that remain standing, but chiefly
because they have been more visited and explored than the others. It is
supposed, and circumstantial evidence appears to warrant the
supposition, that this city had not been wholly deserted at the time of
the Spanish Conquest, although it had previously begun to be a ruin. It
was wholly a ruin in 1673. The area covered by its remains is extensive.
Charnay makes it a league or more in diameter; but most of the
structures have fallen, and exist now only in fragments scattered over
the ground. It may be that many of them were not built wholly of hewn
stone, and had not "Egyptian solidity" with their other characteristics.

The most important of those remaining was named "Casa del Gobernador" by
the Spaniards. It is 320 feet long, and was built of hewn stone laid in
mortar or cement. The faces of the walls are smooth up to the cornice.
Then follows, on all the four sides, "one solid mass of rich,
complicated, and elaborately sculptured ornaments, forming a sort of
arabesque." Figure 36 gives a view of the south end of this edifice, but
no engraving can show all the details of the ornamentation.

[Illustration: Fig. 36.--Casa del Gobernador, Uxmal.]

This building has eleven doorways in front, and one at each end, all
having wooden lintels, which have fallen. The two principal rooms are 60
feet long, and from 11 to 13 feet wide. This structure is long and
narrow The arrangement and number of the rooms are shown in the
following ground plan of the building (Figure 37):

[Illustration: Fig. 37.--Ground Plan of Casa del Gobernador]

[Illustration: Fig. 38.--Double-headed Figure, Casa del Gober