[Illustration: Fig. 34.--Great Mound at Mayapan.]
We shall notice only some of the principal ruins in Yucatan, beginning
with Mayapan, the ancient capital. The remains of this city are situated
about ten leagues, in a southern direction, from Merida. They are spread
over an extensive plain, and overgrown by trees and other vegetation.
The most prominent object seen by the approaching explorer is a great
mound, 60 feet high and 100 feet square at the base. It is an imposing
structure, seen through the trees, and is itself overgrown like a wooded
hill. Figure 34 shows one view of this. Four stairways, in a ruinous
condition, 25 feet wide, lead up to an esplanade within 6 feet of the
top, which is reached by a smaller stairway. The summit is a plain stone
platform 15 feet square. This, of course, was a temple. Sculptured
stones are scattered around the base, and within the mound subterranean
chambers have been discovered.
It is probable that the principal edifices at Mayapan were not all built
wholly of stone, for they have mostly disappeared. Only one remains, a
circular stone building 25 feet in diameter, which stands on a pyramidal
foundation 35 feet high. This is represented in Figure 35. On the
southwest side of it, on a terrace projecting from the mound, was a
double row of columns without capitals, 8 feet apart. There are
indications that this city was old, and that the buildings had been more
than once renewed. Brasseur de Bourbourg classes some of the foundations
at Mayapan with the oldest seen at Palenque and Copan. This point,
however, can not be determined with sufficient accuracy to remove all
doubt. Mayapan may have stood upon the foundations of a very ancient
city which was several times rebuilt, but the city destroyed in 1420
could not have been as old as either Palenque or Copan.
[Illustration: Fig. 35.--Circular Edifice at Mayapan.]