presented in the plate opposite. It
does not stand on an artificial terrace, but the earth seems to have
been excavated for some distance before it, so as to give it elevation
of position. It faces the east, and measures one hundred and forty-nine
feet in front by forty-eight feet deep. The whole exterior is rude, and
without ornament of any kind. A grand staircase, forty-five feet wide,
now entirely in ruins, rises in the centre to the roof of the building.
On each side of the staircase are two doorways; at each end is a single
doorway, and the front facing the west has seven. The whole number of
apartments is eighteen. The west front opens upon a large hollow
surface, whether natural or artificial it is not easy to say, and in
the centre of this is one of those features before referred to, a solid
mass of masonry, forty-four feet by thirty-four, standing out from the
wall, high as the roof and corresponding, in position and dimensions,
with the ruined staircase on the eastern front. This projection is not
necessary for the support of the building; it is not an ornament, but,
on the contrary, a deformity; and whether it be really a solid mass, or
contain interior chambers, remains to be ascertained by the future
explorer.

[Engraving 38: Sculptured Stone Tablet]

At the south end the doorway opens into a chamber, round which hangs a
greater and more unpenetrable mystery. This chamber is nineteen feet
wide by eight feet six inches deep, and in the back wall a low, narrow
doorway communicates with another chamber in the rear, of the same
dimensions, but having its floor one step higher. The lintel of this
doorway is of stone, and on the soffite, or under part, is sculptured
the subject represented in the engraving opposite. This tablet, and the
position in which it exists, have given the name to the building, which
the Indians call Akatzeeb, signifying the writing in the dark; for, as
no light enters except from the single doorway, the chamber was so dark
that the drawing could with difficulty be copied. It was the first time
in Yucatan that we had found hieroglyphics sculptured on stone, which,
beyond all question, bore the same type with those at Copan and
Palenque. The sitting figure seems performing some act of incantation,
or some religious or idolatrous rite, which the "writing in the dark"
undoubtedly explains, if one could but read it. Physical force may raze
these buildings to the ground, and lay bare all the s