The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1885-11-25
THE LOST CITIES.
Wonders OF Ancient Civilization
Found in Central America.

Wonders OF Ancient Civilization
Found in Central America.
Copan in Honduras is famous for its
grotesoue idols or stone columns and
sculpturcd affairs. These are very pro-
fuse and some of them remarkable. In
100, Fuentes, who wrote the chronicles
of the kingdom Of Guatemala, mentioned
this ruin and stated that in his time the
great circ'ls of Copan was entire. 1t
was q circular space and surrounded by
stone pyramids eighteen or twenty feet
high. He also mentioned a stone ham
mock in which were two human figures
and all cut from the same stone, and so
adjusted between the pyramids that it
could be put in motion by the slightest
impulse of the hand. These ruins eX-
tend a distance of two miles along the
river.
The largest building is the temple, as
it has been styled. It is an oblong in
closure and extends along the river bank
624 feet and rises from sixty to ninety
feet. 1t is made from blocks of cut
stone from three to six feet long and n
foot and a half wide. The other three
sides consist of rows of steps and pyra-
midal structures rising from thirty to 40
feet on the slope. In one place two mas
sive pyramids of 100 feet IN the slope
seem to adorn q gateway. Sculptured
ruins are scattered about in great mum
bers. The idols or scriptured columns
characterize the ruins. Some of these,
Stephens thinks, equal the finest Egyptian
sculpture. The same hieroglyphics are
found in s%culptured p%rofusion as at
Palenque.
Uxmal and Chichen in the northwes.
tern corner of Yucatan are to me more
wonderful than any others yet men
toned. The former has extensive and
magnificent ruins scattered over a large
area. One immense building called the
"House of the Governor" stands upon
three ranges of terraces, the lower ma
sonry five hundred and seventy-tiv feet.
The structure is three hundred and
twenty-five feet long and faces the east.
The wall is smooth to the tops OF the
doorways and then the cornice is one
rich mass of elaborate sculpturcd orna-
ments or hieroglyphics.
A few miles west of UXmal is another
ancient city-Chichen. This group of
ruins is all found within two miles in
circumference Though ruins extend some
distance into the surrounding country.
These, like its neighbor at Uxmal, stand
upon a succession Of terraces made Of
rubble imbcdded in mortar and held to-
gether by finished walks of concrete
limestone. Above these huge terraces
the buildings rise pcrpendicularly one
half their height, when to the cornice
the remainder is laid of in compart-
ments, which arc deliberately decorated
with stone sculpture and illustrated with
h%ieroglypnics. This is varied with elabo.
rate borders, the whole executed with
accuracy and precision. The rooms in.
aside are finished with white stucco and
painted in frcsco, sky blue and light
green colors predominating, and arc still
preserved. One building is named the
tPalace of the Nuns" and is very rich
in sculpture. The largest is the castle,
and it has wonderful stone carvings in
white Limestone.
The hieroglyphics are curious and
beautiful. The mural paintings in this
lost city are fine, even from the artists
point. Some represent warriors in battle
casting spears and javelins, while others
are thought to represent incidents in the
lives of the rulers of Chichcn.
Speculations in regard to the age OF
these ruins have been wild and extrava-
giant. They have extended from the
deluge to the fifteenth century of the
Christian era. Bancroft made an at
tempt to collect the most important OF
these conjectures, and this was the
range. In 1859 Charney was sent by the
French government to explore these
ruins. From what knowledge he gained
it was judged by scientific men that
there were ut least seventeen hundred or
two thousand years old. Upon his sec
ond visit in 1881 lie found that the rapid
growth Of the conccntric layers Of the
forest trees from which his former con-
illusions had been reached were not in the
proportion of Que a year as in the layer
of trees in the north, but nearer to one
layer for each month. lie set his first
calculations aside as very wide of the
true date, and this time concluded that
they could not be earlier than the 18th
or 18th century. Madaiiiac thinks the
ruins of Pa'en0ue cannot DO older than
the first century of our era.
At Meta, o town near the Pacific
coast, in an arid and desert plain sur
rounded by rugged mountains, are the
ruins of q once magnificent town. Inc
eminent archeologist, Viollct-lc-Duc, says
concerning its principal building: 1.-The
monuments of the golden age Of Greece
and Rome alone equal the beauty of the
masonry of this great building" The
walls and pavcments were covered with
coats of stucco, and painted red, much
like the decorations of the walls OF Pom
pcii. The rooms were ornamented IN
rich mosaics of little stones, forming
perfectly symmetrical designs in Greek
frets or arabcsques.
At Kabah, near Uxmal, is a structure
or portico that bears a marked resem-
blance to the Roman triumphal arch.
During the past ten years DIR. LIE Plon-
gen. Charnay and others have made
discoveries which have added very ma
terially to antiquarian treasures. Tho
former, near the palace of Chichen. eS-
cavatcd several beautifully executed bas
r~elicfs, representing feline animals and
birds of prey, a figure of a tiger with a
human face, a stone urn filled with ashes
and a statue of q man reclining upon a
sepulchral stone.
This same figure has been found at the
Citv of Mexico and Merida and is sup
nosed to have represented some un.