Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/57

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Early American Architecture. 27 a kind of concrete, and that again by cyclopean blocks. The ruins of Cuzco, the old capital of the kingdom, are the finest specimens of Peruvian masonry still extant. They are composed of huge polygonal limestone blocks, fitted together with the greatest precision, and piled up in three terraces. 3. Central America. — The principal architectural re- mains of Central America are in Mexico, Yucatan, and mn i ii iiju ij j jju jjm i iMiiiiijuj L tijttiiAi i Bjj i j r Fig. 1G.— Palace of Zayi. Guatemala. They are all supposed to have been the creations of the Toltecs, a race who probably dwelt in these provinces at the most remote ages, and attained to a higher decree of civilisation than their successors, the Aztecs of Mexico, and the mixed races of the neighbouring districts. The buildings most deserving of notice in Cen- tral America are the Teocallis, or Houses of God, and the palaces of the kings. The former consist of four-sided