Detail of an area in the West Court known as the Reviewing Stand. This bleacher-like space is really the counterfaçade of Structure 11. The name Reviewing Stand, as many other popular names for structures in Maya cities, is the product of a flight of fancy and has nothing to do with the actual function of the space, which can only be speculated about. The sculpture of a huge sea snail was probably intended to produce an association between this space and water, as a reference perhaps to either the primordial sea of Creation or the watery Underworld. |