The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1911-07-06

To visit the ancient city now. one jolts for
Is long and weary miles in two.whceled coy
cred cart drawn by three mules over the rough.
est kind OF highway imaginable. This pres
ent inconvenience fortunately is not to be one
OF long standing. a and straight road is
about to be built and an automobile service to
the ruins probably established which will
shorten the present length OF the trip from
four hours to about half an hour. Now, how
ever. this ride from Citas. the nearest railroad
point. seems intorminable The road so
called by courtesy only. winds through the i'm
penetrable bush which everywhere in the nat.
ural state covers northern Yucatau Through
this the creakng cart finds dubious way mile
after mile until every muscle in ones body
groans an agonized protest Finally, when it
seems that the limit of physical endurance has
been reached, the cart suddenly lurches around
n sharp turn in the road and as II by magic
the lofty Castillo flashes into view towering
high above the plain and the rest Of the city
in its lonely maguincencc.
This imposing structure the h CHEST In Yu.
catan rises rs feet above the plain The
pyramid on which the temple stands Is 1876
feet long on each side at the base aud covers
about an acre Of ground
The Castillo would seem to have been the
center Of the ancient city and probably It's
chief sanctuary To the north lies the Sacred
Ccuo'e and the causeway Just mentioned,
leading TO it, On the east Is vast group OF
buildings colonnadcs, courts and pyramids.
The City Of a Thousand Columns" as some
one has piCluresqucly described IT, Due west
is the group OF structures known ms the BAH
Court To the south for half n mile or more,
scattered through the jungle, are pyramids.
courts temples and palaces Tn" central To-
cation of the Castillo with reference to all Of
these as we'll It's great size ard command
ing height argue strongly that 1t was the
chief sanctuary Of tho Holy City.
Another interesting group of structures at
Chlchen liza, perhaps slightly less sacred in
character than the Castillo, is the Rocallod
Ball Court" mentioned above rs lying Just
west Of the Castillo This group is composed
of two parallel masses of solid masonry, each
272 feet long, q feet high and lG feet wide
placed ll9 feet apart from each other. These
two great walls for such they really are, form
a court nearly 900 feet long by lla feet wide
High on the side of each at the middle pOut
from end to end there Is attached a stone
ring four feet in diameter with Il hole through
IT, These rings are fastened to oil resluc-
tive walls by lemons of stone, and are so
placed that the surface of each is pci.pcndicu.
lar to the vertical face of the wall The ur.
rangement is very similar to the baskets in
our modern game OF basket ball except that
nt Chichen liza the baskets" have their open.
ings perpendicular to the ground while in our
game the openings in the baskets are parallel
with the ground To make a basket ut tho
Chichen liza court somewhat Horizontal,
throw as in baseball was necessary. while
nowadays 1t is a toss that wins the goal
At the open ends Of the court formed by
these two walls stand temples, which in effect
inclose the area. definitely marking It's boun.
daries. On top Of the east wall, at It's south.
ern end, there lie beautiful temple, which
affords commanding view OF the entire court
This has been called THE House of tho
Tigers" because of frieze of stalking tigers,
which is sculptured In altorelievo around the