On Zapatero, an island which lies just north of Ometepec, distributed over a level space covered with a dense growth of trees, are eight irregular heaps of loose unhewn stones, showing no signs of system either in the construction of each individual mound or in their arrangement with reference to each other.[II-32] An attempt to open one of the largest of the number led to no results beyond the discovery of an intermixture of broken pottery in the mass of stones. They are surrounded, as we shall see, by statues, and are believed by Mr Squier to be remains of the teocallis known to have served the Nicaraguans as temples at the time of the conquest.[II-33] At the foot of Mt Mombacho, a volcano south of Granada, was found a ruined cairn, or sepulchre, about twenty feet square, not particularly described, but similar to those which will be mentioned as occurring in the department of Chontales; others were said by the inhabitants to have been found in the same vicinity.[II-34] In a steep-banked ravine near Masaya, the rocky sides of which present numerous sculptured figures, or hieroglyphics, a shelf some nine feet wide is cut in the perpendicular cliff which towers one hundred feet in height at its back. On this shelf is a rectangular excavation eight by four feet and eighteen inches deep, with regularly sloping and smoothly cut sides, surrounded by a shallow groove which leads to the edge of the precipice, presumably designed to carry off rain-water. This strange excavation is popularly known as El Baño, although hardly of sufficient size to have served as a bath; a rudely cut flight of steps leads up the cliff to the shelf, and two pentagonal holes penetrate the face of the cliff at its back horizontally to a great depth, but these may be of natural formation. Some kettle-shaped excavations are reported also along the shore of the lake, now and possibly of old used in tanning leather.[II-35] Mr Boyle speaks of the road by which water is brought up from the lake to the city by the women of Masaya, a deep cut in the solid rock, a mile long and descending to a depth of over three hundred feet, as a reputed work of aboriginal engineering, but as he seems himself somewhat doubtful of the fact, and as others do not so mention it, this may not properly be included in our list of ancient monuments.[II-36] In the cliff at Nijapa, an old crater-lake near Managua, is what has been regarded by the natives as a wonderful temple excavated from the solid rock by the labors of the Antiguos, their ancestors. Indeed its entrance bears a strong resemblance, when viewed from the opposite side of the lake, to the arched portals of a heathen temple, but, explored by both Squier and Boyle, it proved to be nothing more than a natural cavern.[II-37]