Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1877-05-17
WHOLE NO. 1777.

Gaudalalara, says that on the eastern
front of the quadrilaterial pyramid
there is broad doorway, twenty.
seven feet wide and nine in height,
crowned with perfect arch. On
each side OF this door way stands a
monstrous sphinx half man half beast,
seven feet high and ten in length,
deity carved in granite sandstone
Their pedestals are blocks of marble,
four feet high and twelve wide, elab
orately adorned with undeciphered
hieroglyphics. These sphinxes guard
the labyrinths below, as did dragons
the gateway of the garden of the Hes
perides. In front OF each sphinx are
two marble pillars forty feet high and
five feet in diameter. The outlines of
nude figures, seven feet high, are
carved on each pillar. The features
clearly defined, are pleasing, and
their expression full of benignity.
The dress and decorations of these
figures are most elaborate and fanciful.
The male, as represented, holds a
scepter in his right hand pointing up
ward; the woman wand pointing TO
the entrance of the temple. The pil-
lars are adorned from base to capital
with hieroglyphies The msin room
of this temple is fifty-three feet wide
and ninety. in length. The interior
walls are covered with sculptured
figures and hieroglyphics in strong
relief. and traces Of the colorings with
which these carved stones are embel-
ished are still visible. The ceiling, of
even height with the door, is support
ed by marble pillars, six on either
side of the aisle, adorned with strange
designes, carved in strong relief In
this spacious apartment a marble
table is fixed in the wall, on which is
engraved the figure of a half recum-
bent woman of exquisite symmetry of
outline. Above is a representation of
the sun. On each side of this tablet
are four columnar series of hero
glyphics, extending from floor to cell
ing, which some Champollion should
at once decipher. The tablet is four
teen feet wide and twenty FIVE feet in
height, its strange letterings, perhaps,
teaching humble devotees who wor-
SHIPPED Their the sacred mysteries Of
the forgotten faith of forgotten race.
A block of marble, concave on the
top, eight feet square, three high, and
covered with hieroglyphics, stands
Immediately in front of the tablet. 1t
is doubtless the altrr on which sacri-
fetal offerings were inundated. There
are four doors leading from this larger
into smaller apartments, used, as it
seems, as depositaries for dead
bodies. inches followed out of the
walls within contains nothing but
dust. The very bones of the dead
have Dissolved by the processes OF
time into impalpable powder, but
strange inscriptions, perfect as when
written, eloquent and poetical and
sad enough when enscribed, are voice
less as the ashes within, and tell no
story of priests or people or kings.
Capt. Stewart counted 100 of these
tombs, each eleven feet long anu three
wide. He inferred, as every peculiar
ity Of the grand structure indicated,
that the occupants of these cetacombs
were of gigantic proportions. A ira
ditional belief obtains among the
present inhabitants of the country
that the pyramid builders were white
and gigantic. "Gigantes,' the Mexi-
can guide said, "dwelt here" They
toiled industriously, built many cities
and temples, wore wooden and silk fab
RIGS (found in their tombs), and when
addicted to agriculture, as attested by
fallen walls that enclosed "broad
acres" Canals which they dug may
still be traced, trayersing the valleys
and plains In all directions, and these
at Multipec may not be the grandest
ruins of temples reared in Mexico by
the prehistoric race.
Capt. Stewart states that the ter
raced hill, on which are these ruins Of
Multipec, is 285 feet high, assembled
by 800 stone steps. Those in front Of
the temples portal are deeply worn
by the footprints of ascending and
descending multitudes. The alcalde
of Multipec said he had taken much
interest in the examination OF these
ruins, but had discovered no trace of
their origin or any means of decipher-
ing the strange inscriptions on the
walls. The hill itself is mass OF
blue granite, and we may imagine
what multitudes went too and fro, and
what numberless years elapsed before
deep grooves across stairways Of
stone we're deeply carved by human
footsteps.-Deta,oore Co. Republican