. Guide leaflet. erewas no such mastery of stone and concreteconstruction. Unfortunately, very fewMexican temples have been preserved. in the first place, the pe()])le on theMexican Highlands commonly used adobeand piled stone faced with cement, a typeof construction that resists very poorlythe destructive action of time. Insteadof covering their buildings with corbelvaults, they erected flat roofs of plasterspread on beams, or pitched roofs ofthatch or wood. Consequently we have nosuch obvious point of interest as in themiraculously preserved Maya , one does have the impressi
. Guide leaflet. erewas no such mastery of stone and concreteconstruction. Unfortunately, very fewMexican temples have been preserved. in the first place, the pe()])le on theMexican Highlands commonly used adobeand piled stone faced with cement, a typeof construction that resists very poorlythe destructive action of time. Insteadof covering their buildings with corbelvaults, they erected flat roofs of plasterspread on beams, or pitched roofs ofthatch or wood. Consequently we have nosuch obvious point of interest as in themiraculously preserved Maya , one does have the impressionthat the effect of awe was gained by thevast, imposing mass of the substructurerather than the building on top. Decorative treatment of the side wallsof the platform was emphasized veryrarely to the point of obscuring the centralplanes. While the most ornate friezeknown from the Highland region is thedeeply cut Temple of Quetzalcoatl atTeotihuacan, more often carvings likesnakes or deaths-heads were inserted in. TEMPLE OE TAJIX. VERA CRlZ As at Xochicalco (p. 31^ the platform and temple are built as a unit. The apertures are smallniches for statues. This tcinple is most readily adaptable to European architectural ideas rill-: Ai:re not soriiiidly eontrolled hy structural iactoisas in the Maya area. Eoofs su])i)ortedbv wooden beams could coverspaces than wuierstoneslabs inched out tomeet in a corbelvault. Under suchcircumstances aninner and an outerchamber of sub-stantial size couldbe made. Some-times the templeshad stone walls andthe roofs were loftystructures of wood-en crib-work. A feature of many Aztec temples was theerection of two temples on a platform forwhichever two gods in their pantheonwere especially to be venerated. AtTenochtitlan there was a notable
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectnatural, bookyear1901
