The most important ruins are found at Mayapan, Uxmal, and Chichen-Itza, in the northern part of the peninsula. We will describe them in the following order:
MAYAPAN.
The remains of this ancient capital lie about thirty miles south of Merida. They are scattered over a broad plain. The principal edifices are the great mound and a circular stone structure. The former is sixty feet in height, and has a base that is one hundred feet square. Four stairways, twenty-five feet in width, lead to the summit, which consists of a simple stone platform fifteen feet square. The latter building is twenty-five feet in diameter, and stands on a sloping foundation thirty-five feet in height. Two rows of columns, without capitals, and lying eight feet apart, are seen on the southwestern side of it. Brasseur de Bourbourg ranks several of the foundations of the Mayapan edifices with the oldest seen at Palenque.
About forty miles south of Mayapan are found the far-famed ruins of
UXMAL.
Stephens says that the Uxmal remains are worthy to stand side by side with those of Egyptian and Roman art.[1] Baldwin, in Ancient America, pp. 131-136, describes Uxmal as follows: "The ruins in Uxmal have been regarded as the most important in Yucatan, partly on account of the edifices which remain standing, but chiefly because they have been visited and explored more than the others. . . . 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 only in fragments scattered over the ground. . . .
- ↑ Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, vol. ii, p. 430.
