The Palace of Palenque

In Mexico and Central America, and more especially in Yucatan, there are between sixty and seventy dead cities whose ruins are of the deepest interest to archaeologists. Messrs. Stephens and Catherwood have visited and described over fifty of them, and if native reports are to be trusted, there are as many more in the centre of the land not yet explored. Palenque is one of the most interesting and important of these ruined cities. It was discovered in 1750, and as no town corresponding to it in situation is mentioned in connection with the conquest of Cortez, it is supposed to have been by that time, and perhaps long before, in a ruined condition. The solid stone buildings which remain attest the fact of its having been at one time a place of considerable importance. The fact that its discovery escaped the conquerors of the country, is no doubt owing to its being surrounded by a dense tropical forest. Of all these architectural remains of ages long past, the most important are the Teocallis or Pyramid-temples. It is necessary, in studying these monuments, to bear a distinction in mind, lest two classes of monuments, entirely dissimilar, should become confused by the use of the word pyramid. The Egyptian pyramid always rises to an apex, has no exterior steps, and always contains a sepulchral chamber. It therefore is a tomb. It is simply a great mausoleum. The pyramid of Mexico and of Central America, on the contrary, is more nearly related to the Assyrian truncated pyramids. It is always terraced, the steps leading up to a platform crowned with a cell or temple, hence it is called a teocalli, or pyramid-temple. The American Pyramid was evidently only a means of raising the temple to such a height that all the people might see the ceremonies performed on the platform. Some are built in successive pyramids rising one above another from broad platforms, as many as five and seven stories high. The teocalli of Palenque is but one story high. A magnificent unbroken flight of steps, on the four sides, leads up to the summit. The pyramid is about 280 feet square at the base, and 60 feet in height; the temple on the top is 76 feet wide in front and 25 feet deep. It is ornamented in stucco and bas-relief. There are also panels or hieroglyphic tablets, whose inscriptions have defied as yet all attempts at solution. The roof is formed by approaching courses of stone slabs meeting at the summit. The splendor of the pyramid-temple consists in the size of the pyramid. In the palace, on the contrary, the pyramid is entirely subordinate to the building it supports, forming a pedestal of sufficient proportions to produce the proper architectural effects. The Palace at Palenque has evidently been a very large and imposing building, the ruin measuring 228 feet x 180 feet, and 25 feet in height. It is built of cut stone cemented with mortar, and covered with figures of men and animals, as well as with hieroglyphics as yet unintelligible. These hieroglyphics may prove to be as indispensable in elucidating the history of the New (old) world as the Rosetta Stone (q.v.) has been in revealing primeval Egypt. They will also quickly solve the long-vexed question as to the age of ancient civilization on the American continent. There is a celebrated bas-relief on the back of a small temple in Palenque, which represents a man offering a child to an emblem very like the Christian cross. This figure has given rise to the theory that these buildings are all subsequent to the Christian Era, and it is stated on very good authority that they belong to the great building era of the world, the 13th and 14th centuries, and that the Temple of Palenque may be contemporary with the cathedral at Rheims. Those who have given time to the study of the ruins say that it is impossible to ascribe a much greater antiquity to the buildings, since a considerable amount of wood has been used in their construction to give, light and ventilation; also that the painting on the walls is still bright and fresh, and the stucco ornamentation, however good, is of a perishable material. In such a climate as Egypt, these considerations would carry no weight, but in a country subject to tropical rains and the heat of a tropical summer, the only marvel is that they should have resisted the ravages of time so long, i.e., from six to eight centuries. See Stephen's "Incidents of Travel" and Catherwood's "Views of Ancient Monuments."