Characteristics of Public buildings are facings of very thin squares of limestone veneer over the cement and rubble core. boot-shaped vault stones. The exuberant use of stone mosaics on upper facades, emphasizing the usual monster-masks with long, hook-shaped snouts, as well as frets and lattice-like designs of crisscrossed elements. (Coe, 157). Their religious buildings were like the great pyramids of Egypt. Instead their cut off at the top broad stairways often with banisters shaped like giant serpents led to the summit, on the summit stood the shrine. The great square featured a skull rack, a row of pointed stakes on which were impaled the heads of the thousands of persons sacrificed there. Within the square stood the priests houses and the ball court. A game resembling basketball was played there. The large rubber ball could be hit only with the knee or hip. The object was to drive it through a ring set vertically in each side of the wall. Causeways and bridges were built to connect the city to the mainland, aqueducts were constructed, and canals were dug through out the city for easy transportation of goods and people. Hieroglyphs were to represent history, geography and tribute. Most of the hieroglyphs represent names of towns and persons used pictographic writing that was recorded on paper or animal hides these writings were called codices still exist today....
