ANCIENT AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE. The architecture of Central America is so unimportant in its general aspect that a few words will suffice to explain its character. In Mexico an Aztec architecture from the twelfth century a.d. to the Spanish conquest in the sixteenth century existed quite apart from and uninfluenced by all other styles, yet bearing a general resemblance to some of them. The temples had a base like an Egyptian pyramid, but were flat-topped, the summit being reached by flights of steps on all sides, or they were formed as storied terraces. On the top was the temple proper with a sloping roof. Examples exist at Cholula near Mexico, at Palenque in Yucatan, and elsewhere. The Palaces, as at Zayi and Uxmal, appear to have derived their features and ornament from timber originals, rising in receding terraces and roofed with slabs of stone forming horizontal arches as in early Greek work at Mycenae (No. 15). In Peru, dating from the tenth century, are remains of flat- roofed buildings erected by the Incas, probably derived from mud originals, and executed in polygonal blockb of Cyclopean masonry of regular courses, similar to early Etruscan work (page 119). REFERENCE BOOKS. Catherwood. — " Views of Ancient Monuments in Central America. Chiapas and Yucatan." Folio. 1844. Charnay (D.).— "The Ancient Cities of the New World." 8vo. 1887. Kingsborough (Lord). — "The Antiquities of Mexico. Penafiel (A.). — " Monumentos del Arte Mexicano Antiguo." 3 vols., folio. Berlin, i8go. Prescott. — " History of the Conquest of Mexico." Stephens (J. L.). — " Incidents of Travel in Yucatan." 2 vols. New York, 1858. Stuebel (A.) and Dhle.— "Die Ruinenstaette von Tiahuanaco in Hoch lande des Alten Peru," Folio. Breslau, 1892.
