Photo: Labna, El Mirador

El Mirador

Catherwood engraving: Labna, El Mirador

El Mirador is the only Temple Pyramid at Labná.

Stephens & Catherwood visited Labná in 1841, when the condition of the stucco decoration on the roof comb was in a better state of preservation. Stephens writes:

"Above the cornice of the building rises a gigantic perpendicular wall to the height of thirty feet, once ornamented from top to bottom with colossal figures and other designs in stucco, now broken and in fragments, but still presenting a curious and extraordinary appearance.

Along the top, standing out on the wall, was a row of death's heads; over the centre doorway, constituting the principal ornament of the wall, was a colossal figure seated.

Conspicuous over the head of this principal figure is a large ball, with a human figure standing up beside it, touching it with his hands, and another below it with one knee on the ground, and one hand thrown up as if in the effort to support the ball, or in the apprehension of its falling upon him."
(Stephens, vol. 2, pp. 31-32)


El Mirador

With the exception of the lower portions of a human figure under the roofcomb on the left, the only remains of El Mirador's once-rich ornamentation are the armatures which once supported a large number of stucco figures.


El Mirador

The stucco is totally gone now, with the possible exception of some small areas of decorative detail at the top left and center of the roofcomb.