About a dozen miles south-eastward from Uxmal are the remains of the ancient city known as Kabah, where ruins quite similar and nearly as extensive as those already described are found. However, new architectural features here meet the observer. In one instance the structure which surmounts a terraced pyramid is square, instead of long and narrow as at Uxmal. The inner rooms of the edifice have floors two feet higher than the floors of the outer rooms, and are entered by two stone steps. In one instance these were cut from a single block with the lower step in the form of a scroll. At Kabah we meet with an entirely new feature in Maya architecture, and the reader’s acquaintance with the terraced casas, of the New Mexican region, will supply the lack of an illustration at this point. In the style of building referred to, the pyramid instead of serving as a foundation for the building, serves as a central support around which the house with its receding stories, one above another, is built. The first story of the building referred to is built upon the ground, with the perpendicular sides of a mound for its rear wall. Just above, on a level with the roof of the first story on the platform of the first terrace of the mound, stands the second story, with the roof of the first serving as a promenade in front of it, while the third story rests upon the second platform of the mound. The platforms or roofs of the first and second stories are reached by means of a stone stairway supported upon a half arch. The first story is accessible from the ground by doorways. The interior apartments are constructed on the model of the Yucatec arch. Here, however, lintels of stone are met with, supported in the centre by rude stone columns surmounted by square capitals. These buildings are of large proportions, equalling any we have thus far described. The decorations of the edifices were considered by Mr. Stephens equal to those of any known era, even when tried by the severest rules of art.[508] At Zayi, one of the finest illustrations of this style of architecture is to be seen in what is known as the Casa Grande. The dimensions of the Casa Grande are as follows: lower story, 120 by 265 feet; the second story, 60 by 220 feet; and the third, resting on the summit platform of the mound, 18 by 150 feet; a stairway thirty-two feet wide furnishes a means of ascent to the third story on the front, while a narrow stairway leads to the second story at the rear. Round columns both in doorways and the façade constitute the chief variation from the styles already observed. An “elephant trunk” ornament protruding from the cornice (also found on Casa del Gobernador and the Casa de Monjas at Uxmal) is a marked feature of decoration. It is unnecessary for us to say that its presence has given rise to much speculation as to its origin. M. Waldeck has given the figure the name which we have applied to it, and perhaps with some reason.[509]