Izamal, Labna, Zayi, and some of the other ruins are sufficiently
important for special notice; but they present every where the same
characteristics, differing a little in the style or method of
ornamentation. At Labna there is among the ruins an ancient gateway,
beautiful in design and construction, a view of which is given in the
Frontispiece. The best account of some of the other ruins on this
peninsula can be found in the volumes of Mr. Stephens, entitled
"Incidents of Travel in Yucatan." At Zayi there is a singular building,
which, as seen at a distance by Mr. Stephens, "had the appearance of a
New England factory." But what seemed to be a "factory" is, in fact,
nothing more than a massive wall with oblong openings, which runs along
the middle of the roof, and rises thirty feet above it. The building was
below this wall, but the front part of it had fallen. Among the remains
at Xcoch is the great mound represented in Figure 44.
There is a remarkable ruin at Ake, at the south, which deserves mention.
Here, on the summit of a great mound, very level, and 225 feet by 50 in
extent, stand 36 shafts or columns, in three parallel rows. The columns
are about 15 feet high and 4 feet square. The ruins of Ake, which cover
a great space, are ruder and more massive than most of the others. The
island of Cozumel and the adjacent coast of Yucatan were populous when
the Spaniards first went there, but the great towns then inhabited are
now in ruins.
[Illustration: Fig. 44.--Great Mound at Xcoch.]
Water is scarce on this peninsula, and a sufficient supply is not
obtained without considerable difficulty. The ancient inhabitants
provided for this lack of water by constructing aguadas or artificial
ponds. These, or many of them, doubtless, are as old as the oldest of
the ruined cities. Intelligence, much skill in masonry, and much labor
were required to construct them. They were paved with several courses of
stone laid in cement, and in their bottoms wells or cavities were
constructed. More than forty such wells were found in the bottom of one
of these aguadas at Galal, which has been repaired and restored to use.
A section of the bottom of this aguada is shown in Figure 45. In some
places long subterranean passages lead down to pools of water, which are
used in the dry season. One of these subterranean reservoirs, and the
cavernous passage leading to it, are shown in Figure 46. The reservoir
is 450 feet below the surface of the ground, and the passage leading to
it is about 1400 feet long. Branching passages, not shown, lead to two
or three other basins of water.
[Illustration: Fig. 45.--Bottom of an Aguada.]
[Illustration: Fig. 46.--Subterranean Reservoir.]
The wooden lintels, which are common in Yucatan, do not appear in the
other ruins, and there is a difference in the style of ornamentation
between those at Palenque or Copan, for instance, and those at Uxmal,
but every where the architecture is regulated by the same idea, the
differences indicating nothing more than different periods and
different phases of development in the history of the same people.
[Illustration: Fig. 47.--Plan of the Walls at Tuloom.]
Some of the great edifices in these old ruins, such as the "Palace" at
Palenque, and the "Casa del Gobernador" at Uxmal, remind us of the
"communal buildings" of the Pueblos, and yet there is a wide difference
between them. They are not alike either in character or purpose,
although such great buildings as the "Palace" may have been designed for
the occupation of several families. There is no indication that
"communal" residences were ever common in this part of the country. At
the time of the Conquest the houses of the people were ordinary family
dwellings, made of wood, and we may reasonably suppose this fashion of
building was handed down from the earlier ages. Herrera, who supposed,
mistakenly, that all the great stone edifices were temples, said, in
his account of Yucatan, "There were so many and such stately stone
buildings that it was amazing; and the greatest wonder was that, having
no use of any metal, they were able to raise such structures, which seem
to have been temples; for their houses were all of timber, and
thatched." But they had the use of metals, and they had the art of
making some of them admirable for use in cutting stone and carving wood.
[Illustration: Fig. 48.--Watch-tower at Tuloom.]
Among the buildings of later date are some of those on the western
coast, which were still inhabited three hundred and fifty years ago. The
city of Tuloom was inhabited then. Figure 47 shows a ground plan of the
walls of this city, with the position of some of the ruined monuments.
Within the walls are remains of finely constructed buildings on elevated
foundations, none of them, however, very large. One of them had a wooden
roof, and timber seems to have been considerably used here. The walls
still standing were made of hewn stone. Remains of stone edifices exist
all along this coast, but the whole region is now covered by a dense
growth of trees and other vegetation. Tuloom was seen in 1518 by
Grijalva, who sailed along the coast. At that time the island of
Cozumel, where noteworthy ruins are found, was inhabited by many people.
Figure 48 shows one of the watch-towers on the walls of Tuloom.