r this lack of water by constructing aguadas or artificial
ponds. These, or many of them, doubtless, are as old as the oldest of
the ruined cities. Intelligence, much skill in masonry, and much labor
were required to construct them. They were paved with several courses of
stone laid in cement, and in their bottoms wells or cavities were
constructed. More than forty such wells were found in the bottom of one
of these aguadas at Galal, which has been repaired and restored to use.
A section of the bottom of this aguada is shown in Figure 45. In some
places long subterranean passages lead down to pools of water, which are
used in the dry season. One of these subterranean reservoirs, and the
cavernous passage leading to it, are shown in Figure 46. The reservoir
is 450 feet below the surface of the ground, and the passage leading to
it is about 1400 feet long. Branching passages, not shown, lead to two
or three other basins of water.

[Illustration: Fig. 45.--Bottom of an Aguada.]

[Illustration: Fig. 46.--Subterranean Reservoir.]

The wooden lintels, which are common in Yucatan, do not appear in the
other ruins, and there is a difference in the style of ornamentation
between those at Palenque or Copan, for instance, and those at Uxmal,
but every where the architecture is regulated by the same idea, the
differences indicating nothing more than different periods and
different phases of development in the history of the same people.

[Illustration: Fig. 47.--Plan of the Walls at Tuloom.]

Some of the great edifices in these old ruins, such as the "Palace" at
Palenque, and the "Casa del Gobernador" at Uxmal, remind us of the
"communal buildings" of the Pueblos, and yet there is a wide difference
between them. They are not alike either in character or purpose,
although such great buildings as the "Palace" may have been designed for
the occupation of several families. There is no indication that
"communal" residences were ever common in this part of the country. At
the time of the Conquest the houses of the people were ordinary family
dwellings, made of wood, and we may reasonably suppose this fashion of
building was handed down from the earlier ages. Herrera, who supposed,
mistakenly, that all the great stone edifices were temples, said, in
his account of Yucatan, "There were so many and such stately stone
buildings that it was amazing; and the greatest wonder was that, having
no use of any metal, they were able to raise such