Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1914-06-03
MITLA, OR '7HE
 PLACE 0f DEATH
Rich in Tradition Are Ruins of Ancient Burial City
 in Mexico.

The ruins of ancient cities, rem nants of dead civilization, have a fascination for most people. Be they scientists of great renown or mere mortals of more common clay, some how something stirs within them at the touch of antique things The av- craze tourist seeking surcease from the daily grind, whether of the col lege lecture room or of the constant chase of the elusive dollar in trade and traffic, who finds himself in some strange city and learns that not far off are the weather beaten walls of an ancient temple, shrine, or palace whose history is mystery and whose builders are unknown, hies himself at once to that place. He touches the crumbling stones, traces the grotesque lgures and queer de- signs, and marvels that such things could have been so many years before he came on earth, perhaps even before the very civilization of which he is bOastful part came into existence.
 Mexico is full of such ruins as these; in Yucatan alone there are some seventy or more. Approach to some of these is too ardueus to most tourists, but on the southernmost shore of the republic lies the state of Caxaca, whose capital is easily ac- cessible. "Oaxaca City is reached from Puebla by the Mexican South ern"-according to statement in the latest pamphlet on Mexico, issued by the Pan-American Union of Washing ton. "The distance is 228 miles and the trip takes 12 hours. It is 2sS miles from Mexico City and the same distance from Vera Cruz. It's popula- tion is 10000. It was the early home of both Porfirio Diaz, former presi- dent, and Benito Juarez, the patriot and national hero. Its age makes it very attractive, but it is quite mod ern in many ways, possessing tram cars, electric lights, telephones, and many other factors of comfort. An other feature connected with Oaxaca is the fact that from the city the ex- cursion is made, about 25 miles to the southeast, to the ruins of Mitla, some of the best preserved prehistor- ical remains of all Mexico"
 Mitla is contraction or corrup- tion of the word Mictlan, meaning ''The place of Death" The modern village and the ancient ruins occupy the center of an arid plain or valley, surrounded on all sides by equally arid hills, on the highest summit of which are the well-preserved remains of great fortress, whose walls are of rough construction and without ornament of any kind. Nearly in the center of the plain five great groups of buildings stand out coml pletely exposed. Many of them are now nearly shapeless mounds and masses of ruins. Two great groups however, are in comparatively perfect preservation, third is incorporated with an old church, and a fourth, the great sacrificial mound, is surmount- ed by the ruins of a very ancient church. The principal buildings are of stone masonry. A condensed de- scription of one will give an idea of the others.
 The Hall of Pillars, the northern most building of the north group, is a great room 125 feet long and 23 feet wide, interior measurements. The height of the walls is about 12 feet. the thickness varying from 8 feet 2 inches on the sides to feet 6