As Tarzan neared the city his interest became centered upon the
architecture of the outlying buildings which were hewn from the
chalklike limestone of what had once been a group of low hills,
similar to the many grass-covered hillocks that dotted the valley
in every direction. Ta-den's explanation of the Ho-don methods of
house construction accounted for the ofttimes remarkable shapes
and proportions of the buildings which, during the ages that must
have been required for their construction, had been hewn from the
limestone hills, the exteriors chiseled to such architectural forms
as appealed to the eyes of the builders while at the same time
following roughly the original outlines of the hills in an evident
desire to economize both labor and space. The excavation of the
apartments within had been similarly governed by necessity.
As he came nearer Tarzan saw that the waste material from these
building operations had been utilized in the construction of outer
walls about each building or group of buildings resulting from
a single hillock, and later he was to learn that it had also been
used for the filling of inequalities between the hills and the
forming of paved streets throughout the city, the result, possibly,
more of the adoption of an easy method of disposing of the quantities
of broken limestone than by any real necessity for pavements.
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