The Major structures include: the large colonnaded platform recorded by Stephens and Charnay (Str. 1), a terraced pyramid with later Puuc-like remains (Str. 2), the Akabná with its intact corbeled vaults (Str. 11), a large superstructure on a high masonry platform (Str. 19), a superstructure on a platform (Str. 3), a very large pyramid (Str. 6), a high pyramid with a summit building (Str. 10), an acropolis complex (Str. 14), another high pyramid with a building on top (Str. 15), and an oblong platform with superstructures (Str. 24). The first four of these structures were studied in the field in as great a degree of detail as was possible without extensive excavation. The other structures received less attention in the field and are presented here in less detailed and less well illustrated form.

At This stage of our knowledge of Aké it is premature to classify many mounds and platforms as “minor structures” even though our use of the designation “major structures” for the most conspicuous mounds makes such a classification logical. We designate these less spectacular mounds as “lesser structures” in an effort to avoid making judgments that we could not support with field data. Our visit to Aké was too brief to do more than record a few notes on many platforms and buildings. We assigned numbers to 26 structures, ten of which have been described as “major structures.” There are 15 or 20 additional mounds or platforms with little or no masonry showing. Fully double that number of low platforms may be counted. These are often auxiliary to the larger pyramids and platforms. Data for 18 “lesser structures” are presented in this brief summary.

Accounts of the monumental architecture occupy much of our text because features of lesser magnitude have suffered deterioration from weather, agriculture, and quarrying for recent building activity.

A number of terrace façades are observable on some pyramids. The clearest of these appear in the north side of Str. 2 where the staircase is Hanked by terrace walls embellished with four large panels recessed nearly a half meter into the wall (Figs. 13, 15, 16). The recessed panel is broken into an upper and a lower plane by a carefully planned offset in the masonry that is evidently decorative. The simplest interpretation of these bold lines, executed through the medium of hewn slabs 30 cm. thick, is that they form a geometrical base for further ornamentation of either painting on flat plaster, or molded stucco.

When Shook was able to join the project, he immediately began to scout the outlying terrain and to investigate the background that allowed the development of so pretentious a city. Water supply was a point of interest, and of course pottery collection was in our minds at all times.

The Indian laborers reported a cenote called Xtompul, some distance to the east, where pottery fragments were plentiful, and Shook promptly visited it, obtaining a good collection. His route lay over one of the well-leveled modern tranvia roadbeds. About a kilometer out, it cut diagonally through a long, low platform with the exposure showing ancient floors which have been plastered, raised, and replastered (Fig. 58).