"Edifice 5 is so constructed that while three of its stories are placed upon terraces built out upon the side of a hill, the fourth story crowns the apex of the hill itself. Thus the back of the structure is the entire height and width of the whole face of the hill and its natural slope. A series of broad stairways lead from the platform of the lowest terrace up to that of the highest. The stairways of this, as well as of the other groups of the region, do not seem to have had the sidebands of the serpent motive, as did most of the stairways at Chichen and Uxmal. A simple band of worked stone was carried along to the finish, with no special lines of ornamentation.
A great tree-trunk entwines the stones of one side of the lower stairway, as can be seen by the photograph. The plan of this edifice and the accompanying photographs give the various details and the general idea far better than any words of mine can. No lines of mural paintings are left, if indeed they ever existed.
The scenic effect produced by these majestic structures, crowning the hills and shaping their sides, must have been imposing. Even to-day, hidden as they are by great tree growths and jungle tangle, ruined and deserted, one involuntarily catches his breath with a feeling akin to awe as he views them for the first time."
E. Thompson, "Archaeological Researches in Yucatan" 1904: p. 18