ter will be limited to a consideration of the main points of Mayan architecture, with illustrations taken from the chief groups of remains. Those who desire fuller details may be referred to the magnificent plates of Maudslay, and the extremely valuable and illuminating descriptions of Palenque, Chichen Itza, Uxmal and Mitla (besides Monte Alban and Teotihuacan) of Holmes. Spinden's monograph on Maya art should also be studied, as well as Seler's book on the ruins at and around Chacula.
The sites to which especial reference will be made are the following: In the Usumacinta valley, Palenque, Piedras Negras and Menché; in the level country near the British Honduras border, Tikal, Naranjo and Seibal; on either side of the Guatemala-Honduras frontier, Quirigua and Copan; and in Yucatan Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Sayil and Tulum. Some allusion will also be made to remains in British Honduras, notably at Santa Rita, and to the district of Huehuetenango in western Guatemala.
One of the principal features of Mayan architecture, as also Mexican, is the fact that all buildings of importance are constructed on raised foundations, varying in form from low platform mounds, often of irregular shape, to lofty pyramidal structures (Fig. 73). The two are not infrequently found combined, and a platform-mound sometimes supports a group of pyramids on which temples were erected. The sides of the platform-mound are sometimes given a steep slope, or are sometimes built vertical or nearly so, the latter form being characteristic rather of Yucatan. The pyramids are usually of the stepped variety, and the risers of the steps are frequently sloped; they are provided with a main stairway on one face, and sometimes with supplemental stairways on the other faces, as in the case of the so-called "Castillo" at Chichen Itza, which can be seen to the left of Pl. XXVIII; p. 348. In this building, and
