Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1914-07-04
ANCIENT IGkA1z
CITY 0FNTER
CIVILIZATION LONG BEFORE
DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
BY COLUMBUS.
CONTAINS tIaEE .sGulp1GREs
People Tell Their, Story and Mode
Of Litesin Stone Work on the
] Walls Of Buildings.
fine SCULPTURES

For many centuries Mexico has
been the home0f many races. Most
Of us are wont to regard 1t as The
home of only the Aztecs, with whose
civilization Prescott and early Span
ish chr0niclers have made US more
or less familiar. The archaeOlogist
and student Of pre-Columbian and
prehistoric times, however, knows
that there we're races, especially In
southern Mexico and parts. Of Cent
rsl America, whose ancient civiliz-
alton had no connection with the en-
pire Of the Montezumas, and whose
wonderful works, long ago fallen in
to decay and ruin, are now the sub.
jects of, scientific research and
study. To Americans, at least these
should be as interesting as the ruins
Of ancient Egypt or the buried cities
of Asia and the Far East.
Ancient Temples.
Under the title Ancient Temples
and Cities of the New World" the
Monthly Bulletin of the Pan Ameri.
q Union, Washington, D. c.. has
been publishing q series of articles
dealing with these relics of a splend-
i'd but long-forgotten people. One Of
the most interesting Of the ruined
cities bore the name Of Chichea TIA,
once the ''Holy City" Of the Mayas,
. people Of whom Sylvanus G. More
ly writes: :.
An Old oeanizatlon.
Long before the discovery Of Am
erica there flourished in southern
Mexico, Guatemala, and parts Of
Honduras a great civilization, which
has been called the Maya. It may
be said without exaggeration that
this civilization had reached a height
equalled by 40 other people of the
Western Hemisphere prior to the
coming of the white man. In archi-
lecture. sculpture, and in painting
the Mayas excelled. Their priests
we're astronomers Of 10 mean abil-
ity, having observed, aad recorded,
without the aid of Instruments of
precision such as are known to us,
thu lsngths -of the Solar and Venus
years, and probably the lengths of
the Mercury and Mars years. In ad-
dition to this they had, developed q
calendar .Aystem and perfected a
chronology which in some of its
characteristics. was equal to our
Long Since Departed.
But the ancient glory Of this
heople had long since departed when
fernando Cortez first came in con.
tact with them on the coast of Yucca.
tan In 1919. Their star had set.
Their, greatest cities had been aband-
oned and, lay IN ruins. Even the
memory Of the older cities of their
culture, such as Palenque. sCopan,
aad -Quirigua, for example, seems to
have passed from the minds Of men,
their. former existence forgotten.
Probably the largest and, and Ger
tainly the most magnificent, of the
ruined cities which the Spanish
conquerors found on their arrival in
Yucatan was Chichen, liza, around
which even In its desolatioa, there
still cluster 4 thousand traditions Of
former sanctity and splendor. The
name Ia Maya. and means "The
Mouth Of the Wells Of the Itzas."
ri a Long Journey. 4
To visit the ancient city now, one
jolts for Is long and weary miles in
tNo;vheeled cart drawn by three
mules over the toughest kind of a
highway IMAGINABLE. FINALLY. when