Created 21-Aug-09
Modified 21-Aug-09
The ruins of Mitla, the wonder of the western world, are today just as they were in the days of Cortez. For centuries, it may be for thousands of years, through the long ages they have defied the ravages of time, of earthquakes and of tropical storms. No ruins in Mexico, and probably none in America, are more elaborately ornamented with chisel and painter's brush than these.
There are five collections of ruins. The first consists of immense blocks of porphyry and traces of hieroglyphic painting. The building is about one hundred and twenty-five feet by one hundred, and the walls, which are seventeen feet high, enclose a large court, on three sides of which are ruins.
There are four walled quadrangles facing upon an open court, lying exactly at the four points of the compass, with their walls in lines true to the needle. The outer walls of all the ruins are composed of oblong panels of mosaic, forming arabesques. There was no chiseling or sculpture on the walls, but, baffling description, were peculiar mosaics formed of pieces of colored stone, cut and fitted into the face of the wall with mathematical accuracy and of complicated designs.
© Alice Coyl