On special occasions, the deity images were carried in procession to the temples where they were placed in sanctuaries (Las Casas 1967:II.clxxvii.216). It is likely that the ancient temples themselves were effigy mountains and that, like the Santiago Atitlan altarpiece, the sanctuaries represented their cave-like homes (Bassie-Sweet 1991; Schele and Mathews 1998:417).