Gateway, Casa del Gobernador, Uxmal

In the foreground, a group of native people is looking on a dead snake one of them has seemingly just killed while, in the background, stand the majestic remains of ornate Mayan architecture. 

Below is the full text of the note associated with this illustration:

The great Teocallis at Uxmal is called, by the Indians, the “House of the Diviner;” and also the “Dwarf’s House.” It is a lofty pyramidal mound, about two hundred and thirty-five feet long, by a breadth of one hundred and fifty-five feet. Its height is eighty-eight feet, and to the top of the building, one hundred and five feet. At the height of sixty feet is a solid projecting platform, formerly reached by a steep flight of steps, now thrown down. On this platform stands the gateway represented in the drawing. It measures twenty-two feet in front, and is twenty-two feet high, and was most elaborately adorned with sculptured stone-work. The ornaments are of similar design to those of the Casa del Gobernador, but executed perhaps with a greater degree of delicacy. The remains of two statues are seen, and most likely the niche in the centre was for the reception of a larger one. The doorway is five feet five inches wide, and ten feet high with lintels of sapote wood still in their places. The interior is divided into two apartments,—the outer, fifteen feet long, by seven feet wide, and nineteen feet high; and the inner one, twelve feet long, four feet wide, and eleven feet high. Both are entirely destitute of ornament, and it is not easy to conjecture to what end they served, as they are small, and have no apparent connection with the rest ot the building.