In the extreme southeastern part of Mexico, on a small peninsula known as Yucatan, is a section which was at one time the abode of this progressive and migrating race known generally among anthropologists as the Mayas. This distant province deserves far more mention than it usually receives from passing travellers. Though possessing few natural attractions Yucatan is a never-ending source of interest for the anthropologist and archeologist. The whole peninsula is a vast limestone formation, with little or no surface water. Rain is infrequent in most parts, and one might travel for miles without crossing a river or brook, or even chancing upon a spring. In most sections of this peninsula the water is at least seventy feet below the surface of the ground. At the present time windmills aid the inhabitants of that section where the henequen, from which binder twine is made, is raised, but centuries ago such facilities were unknown. There were, however, in some places natural wells which reached down to the depth of what seem to be underground rivers, and it was near these that several ancient cities were located. At least a score of these ancient cities have been explored, of which the best known and most important are Palenque, Uxmal and Chichen Itza. It is known that since the Spaniards first set foot on this peninsula many monuments and practically entire cities have disappeared. At one time, a contemporary writer asserts, there were destroyed in Yucatan five thousand idols of various forms and dimensions, thirteen huge stones which were used as altars, twenty-two smaller stones of various shapes, one hundred and ninety-seven manuscripts of all kinds, including twenty-seven written on deer skins. Chichen Itza, which is generally interpreted to mean “the mouth of the wells of the Itzas,” seems to have been the leading city, and it was located near two of the largest natural wells, which are immense natural pits with perpendicular sides. It is probable that these phenomena attracted the Mayas in their northern migration. As the tribes quarrelled different factions separated from the original body and established new cities as capitals. Thus Chichen Itza came into being. On this desolate soil, “ ... buried ’mid trees, Upspringing there for sunless centuries, Behold a royal city, vast and lone, Lost to each race, to all the world unknown, Like famed Pompeii, ’neath her lava bed. ... At every step some palace meets the eye, Some figure frowns, some temple courts the sky.”