Abstract
ALL the great eastward-jutting promontory of Yucatan and Quintana Roo is covered with the ruins of stone temples, erected by architects of great skill, and often beautifully decorated with carvings and wall paintings. Lying between the Usumacinta River and the Caribbean, the region is a low tableland of limestone, scarcely raised from the sea, its general flatness relieved only by a few hills two or three hundred feet high; no rivers run in all the promontory, the abundant rain falling between May and December soaking through the thin layer of soil—frequently no more than a few inches deep—to the natural limestone hollows that serve Yucatan as wells. Sub-tropical, genial, extremely productive where any soil exists, the country's wild covering is light woodland, with peculiar and beautiful vegetation, sheltering hosts of birds and beasts.
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The Temples of Yucatan: Work of the Scientific Restorer. Nature 128, 692–695 (1931). https://doi.org/10.1038/128692a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/128692a0