The American Egypt : a record of travel in Yucatan . tory of the In-dian Archipelago(3 vols. : Edin-burgh, 1820), invol. ii. p. 200, whenspeaking of the in-terior of the build-ings there, writes : The stones over-1 a p each otherwithin so as topresent to the eyethe appearance ofinverted steps of astair. . Thebuilders of Bram-hanan had pos-sessed the art ofturning the ellipti-cal arch and vault,for the entrancesand doorways areall arched and the roofs vaulted. A circular vault or arch,however, is nowhere to be found among the ruins ; andthe principle of turning an arch is nowhere carried to suc
The American Egypt : a record of travel in Yucatan . tory of the In-dian Archipelago(3 vols. : Edin-burgh, 1820), invol. ii. p. 200, whenspeaking of the in-terior of the build-ings there, writes : The stones over-1 a p each otherwithin so as topresent to the eyethe appearance ofinverted steps of astair. . Thebuilders of Bram-hanan had pos-sessed the art ofturning the ellipti-cal arch and vault,for the entrancesand doorways areall arched and the roofs vaulted. A circular vault or arch,however, is nowhere to be found among the ruins ; andthe principle of turning an arch is nowhere carried to sucha length as to convey the impression of grandeur or magnifi-cence. This might as appropriately have been written ofthe Mayan buildings. Where in the very few instances thearch was continued along more than one side of the building,as in the Castillo of Chichen, it does not make a circular turn,but comes to a corner and then goes off at right angles. Theonly circular turning arch we saw was the continuouslyrounded one in the Caracol at DIAGRAM OF MAYAN ARCH. WHO WERE AMERICAS FIRST ARCHITECTS ? 265 Next, let us take the interior wall paintings of the buildingsof both countries. Most of the inner walls of the buildingsin Central America bear traces of paints on the plaster. Thebiggest room at Chichen, that on the south side of the Nunnery,47 feet by 9, was once covered with paintings from the floorto the apex of the roof. So were the smaller rooms. Butowing to vandalism and natural decay of the plaster, theycannot now be properly traced. There is, however, enoughto show that they represented the inhabitants of the , in the House of the Tigers, standing up gaunt andmajestic on the wall of the Tennis Court, the everyday life ofthe builders is depicted by the artist in blues, greens, yellows,and a reddish brown. Now turn to the ancient Buddhist edifices. Spence Hardy(Eastern Monachism, p. 230) says: The whole interior,whether rock, wall, or statue, is painted in
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