turn partitioned off into oblong-shaped rooms, the chief of which, in
the centre of the building, are 60 feet long. There is nothing notable
in the actual building of this palace, which conforms to the designs
common at Chichen and elsewhere. The rear of the building is unbroken by
doorways, but has two arches towards each end let into the building. The
full length of the entablature is elaborately carved in a lattice-work
pattern, with ornamentation superimposed, in which the snouted mask is a
leading feature. Over the doorways the ordinary design is broken by
specially elaborate carvings which usually take the form of a V shape
bordered with a lattice pattern and small projecting squares. To the
north-west of this palace is the so-called House of Turtles, which gains
its name from the curious frieze on which turtles are the chief
ornamentation. It has a frontage of 94 feet and is about 30 feet deep.
The east and west ends are much ruined, and portions of the roof have
fallen. It is remarkable as entirely lacking the profuse ornamentation
of the Governor's Palace and the Nunnery.
To the south-west of this stands the building, in shape a quadrangle, to
which the absurd name of House of Pigeons has been given in allusion to
a series of nine gables, of which eight are still standing, which form a
false front, each gable pierced with thirty rectangular openings in
seven horizontal rows. The whole building is 240 feet long. In the
centre of the front, which looks northward, is an arch 10 feet wide,
leading into what was once the courtyard of the building. The other
wings of the quadrangle are in hopeless ruin. To the south of the House
of Pigeons is another small courtyard enclosed once on the east and west
by buildings, with a mound on the south side up which runs a
well-preserved stairway. At the south-west corner of the Governor's
Palace is a large truncated pyramid between 60 and 70 feet high and
about 270 feet at the base. The top is about 70 feet square, and some 15
feet from it on the north side is a ledge or terrace which suggests that
the buildings which once stood on this mound were similar in design to
those which we have described as still standing on the mound called the
House of the Dwarf.
[Illustration: THE PALACE, UXMAL.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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