YUCATAN’S TEMPLES

Hokitika Guardian, 1 November 1924, Page 4

YUCATAN’S TEMPLES

(By I). Love.;

Tile article by Science Service, in the •‘Herald” of tile filli. inst., concerning the work of the Carnegie Institute excavators in unearthing the ruins of Chichen Uza, is especially interesting, perhaps more particularly in view of the evidence obtained or the existence of a “Ball Game,” even at that remote period of American civilisation.

Mexico, with its Aztecs and To!tecs, is not only a puzzle to ethnologists, but also to architects. There are old buildings of a remarkable character in that land, which no one seems able to trace to the earlier civilisations of the old Continent. Cities have been rediscovered which were inhabited and hi the full tide of prosperity at the time of the Spanish Compiest. How impli is reliable of the alleged history of the Aztees and Toltees between the fifth and fifteenth centuries is not certain; hut the remarkable temples of Mexico and Yucatan were built within that wide intedvhl. There are about 00 old ruined cities in Yucatan full of remarkable buildings and supposd to be from 500 to 700 years old. One of the most celebrated buildings is the Teocalli, or Temple of Cliolula. It now looks little other than a vast mound of earth; hut examination shows it to lie a pyramid temple, I tTOlt. s(|iiare at the base by 17711. high. It is four times as large as the great Pyramid of Egypt in area, but only onethird of tin* height. ’I lie bulk of the Pyramid is funned of clay and sundried bricks. It consists of four terraces, and on the top was once a temple of tin* To I tec god ol the air. It contains spacious .sepulchral cavities; n square ilmmher, formed of stone mid cypress wood. When discovered a few years ago it was found to contain two skeletons and several painted vases. The teocalli tit l’aleni|ue was a far more spl eiulid structure, comprising sanctuaries, sepulchres, courts, cloisters. galleries, and cells; forming altogether a spacious quadrangle, enclosed by porticoes, and resting on a plalf.mil eomiHiseil of three giadualcd terraces. .Much of the interior is decorated with sculptures and hieroglyphics in stucco. The palace of Mitla. Is another of these large and remarkable Toller structures, and seems to consist of five tombs of kinds, exhibiting notable works in porphyry, stone, stucco. and evpre.ss wood, adorned with elaborately painted representations of sacrifices, trophies, weapons ole.