File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17972158760).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo14amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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Great sink-hole in the limestone plain similar to the cenote except that the casing in has not reached water level. Such a sink-hole forms a fairy grotto with its cool depths hung with vines and long thread- like roots to a narrow vaulted passage that leads neither into portico nor the sanctuary. The decoration of the temple consists of sculptured door jambs and lintels, all in bad repair; a mask panel or highly conventionalized serpent head in front view, on the outer walls above each door; two columns, already men- tioned, that represent feathered serpents with the heads at the base and the tails serving as the capitol, and an open-work roof ornament reproducing the Greek meander. From the shaded porch of Mr. Thomp- son's residence we look across a lawn where the fountain plays and the orange trees hang their golden fruit, to a splen- did relic of ancient glory — the great 20 building known as the Monjas or Nun- nery. This rambling structure, richly decorated with grotesque faces and geo- metric designs, is of especial interest to the archaeologist because it shows differ- ent periods of growth. In the first place the substructure of the principal range of buildings has been enlarged several times as is made clear by excavations leading into the solid mass. The ground level wing on the east was added after the substructure had received its final enlargement. The small chamber at the top of the Monjas, which may be called the third story, was not contempo- raneous with the range of rooms beneath it, first because some of these rooms had to be filled in with earth to support the

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