Most of the buildings’ upper stories had collapsed into heaps of rubble and had grasses or trees growing from them. But the architecture was still impressive. Plain, fitted-stone walls were accented with stone that had been carved to form a lattice pattern or with panels that were covered with blocky hieroglyphs or stylized images of ancient rulers and gods. The stones were all a dusky orange-gray, but I could see flecks of paint, here and there, that told me that this must once have been a colorful place.