Biologia Centrali-Americana, or, Contributions to the knowledge of the fauna and flora of Mexico and Central America . , of which a Plan is given on the next page. A very well-laid flightof steps, formed of large blocks of stone, leads to a platform in front of the centredoorway. This platform runs along the front of the building, and, at each end ofthe temple, is carried out at right angles as far as the line of the commencementof the steps. Two large grotesque faces and some handsome carved wing-stones extendacross this platform to the head of the steps on either side of the doorway. The doo
Biologia Centrali-Americana, or, Contributions to the knowledge of the fauna and flora of Mexico and Central America . , of which a Plan is given on the next page. A very well-laid flightof steps, formed of large blocks of stone, leads to a platform in front of the centredoorway. This platform runs along the front of the building, and, at each end ofthe temple, is carried out at right angles as far as the line of the commencementof the steps. Two large grotesque faces and some handsome carved wing-stones extendacross this platform to the head of the steps on either side of the doorway. The door-way itself is 9 feet wide and was probably covered with a vaulted roof. In front of the e2 BOEEATJ OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY* 1899LIBEABY 2S COPAN. doorway leading to the inner chamber is a step (A-B) 2 feet high and 15 feet long,carved on its face with hieroglyphs and skulls (Plate XVI.). At each end of this stepis a human figure seated on a huge skull (Plates XII., Pla* of No- 22- XIII., XIV., and XV.), sup-porting in its hand the headof a dragon, whose body isturned upwards and is lostamongst the scroll-work and. liu =25 ft figures of a cornice which runsover the doorway. About 4feet above the floor in each /of the two positions marked J .X a stone in the masonry ofthe wall is pierced by a holethrough which a rope could be passed, and holes may also be noticed above thehieroglyphs on the step, which were probably needed for the support of curtains. Howthe roof of the passage between one chamber andthe other was supported is a mystery. It wascovered by a number of blocks of stone, and not bya single stone slab; and yet these blocks are squareat their edges, and could not have formed part ofa true nor of a parallel laid arch. Possibly woodenjambs and architraves supported these blocks ofstone; but if so, all trace of them has XII. is a sketch of this doorway, most care-fully restored, from photographs and measurements taken during the progress of theexcavation
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