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STATISTICAL

ANALYSIS. II. Intendancy of Puebla.

well adapted for the cultivation of sugar, cotton, and the other precious productions of the tropics.

The table-land of La Puebla exhibits remarkable vestiges of ancient Mexican civilization. The fortifications of Tlaxcallan are of a construction posterior to that of the great pyramid of Cholula, a curious monument, of which I shall give a minute description in the historical account of my travels in the interior of the new continent. It is sufficient to state here, that this pyramid, on the top of which I made a great number of astronomical observations, consists of four stages; that in its present state the perpendicular elevation is only 54 metres, and the horizontal breadth of the base 439 metrest; that its sides are very exactly in the direction of the meridians and parallels, and that it is constructed (if we may judge from the perforation made a few years ago in the north side) of alternate strata of brick and clay. These data are sufficient for our recognizing in the construction of this edifice the same model observed in the form of the pyramids of Teotihuaccan, of which we have already spoken. They suffice also to prove the great analogy between these brick

* 177 feet. Trans.

Zoega de Obeliscis, p. 380;

1423 feet. Trans. Voyages de Pococke (edition ·

de Neufchatel), 1752, tom. i. p. 156 and 167; Voyage de De

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STATISTICAL II. Intendancy of Puebla.
ANALYSIS. }

monuments erected by the most ancient inhabitants of Anahuac, the temple of Belus at Babylon, and the pyramids of Menschich-Dashour, near Sakhara in Egypt.

The platform of the truncated pyramid of Cholula has a surface of 4200 square metres*. In the midst of it there is a church dedicated to Nuestra Señora de los Remedios, surrounded with cypress, in which mass is celebrated every morning by an ecclesiastic of Indian extraction, whose habitual abode is the summit of this monument. It is from this platform that we enjoy the delicious and majestic view of the Volcan de la Puebla, the Pic d'Orizaba, and the small cordillera of Matlacueyet, which formerly separated the territory of the Cholulans from that of the Tlaxcaltec republicans.

The pyramid, or teocalli, of Cholula is exactly of the same height as the Tonatiuh Itzaqual of Teotiuhacan, already described; and it is three metres higher than the Mycerinus, or the third of the great Egyptian pyramids of the groupe of non, 4to edit. p. 86, 194, and 237; Grobert Description des Pyramides, p. 6 and 12.

* 45,208 square feet English. Trans.

+ Called also the Sierra Malinche, or Doña Maria. Malinche appears to be derived from Malintzin, a word (I know not why) which is now the name of the Holy Virgin.

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9.8 feet. Trans.

STATISTICAL

ANALYSIS. II. Intendancy of Puebla.
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Ghize. As to the apparent length of its base, it exceeds that of all the edifices of the same description hitherto found by travellers in the old continent, and is almost the double of the great pyramid known by the name of Cheops. Those who wish to form a clear idea of the great mass of this Mexican monument from a comparison with objects more generally known, may imagine a square four times the dimensions of the Place Vendome, covered with a heap of bricks of twice the elevation of the Louvre! The whole of the interior of the pyramid of Cholula is not, perhaps, composed of brick.-These bricks, as was suspected by a celebrated antiquary at Rome, M. Zoega, probably form merely an incrustation of a heap of stones and lime, like many of the pyramids of Sakhara, visited by Pocock, and more recently by M. Grobert. Yet the road from Puebla to Mecameca, carried across a part of the first stage of the teocalli, does not agree with this supposition.

We know not the ancient height of this extraordinary monument. In its present state, the length of its base† is to its perpendicular height

* See note E at the end of the work,

+I shall here subjoin the true dimensions of the three great pyramids of Ghize, from the interesting work of M. Grobert. I shall place in adjoining columns the dimensions of the

STATISTICAL II. Intendancy of Puebla. }

ANALYSIS.

as 8: 1; while in the three great pyramids of Ghize, this proportion is as 1 and 1 to 1', or nearly as 8 to 5. We have already observed that

brick pyramidal monuments of Sackhara in Egypt, and of Teotihuacan and Cholula in Mexico. The numbers are French feet. (A French foot = 1.066 English.)

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It is curious to observe, 1. that the people of Anahuac have had the intention of giving the height and the double base of the Tonatiuh Itztaqual to the pyramid of Cholula; and 2. that the greatest of all the Egyptian pyramids, that of Asychis, of which the base is 800 feet in length, is of brick and not of stone (Grobert, p. 6.) The cathedral of Strasbourg is eight feet, and the cross of St. Peter at Rome 41 feet, lower than the Cheops. There are in Mexico pyramids of several stages, in the forests of Papantla, at a small elevation above the level of the sea, and in the plains of Cholula and Teotihuacan at elevations surpassing those of our passes in the Alps. We are astonished to see in regions the most remote from one another, and under climates of the greatest diversity, man following the same model in his edifices, in his ornaments, in his habits, and even in the form of his political institutions.

STATISTICAL II. Intendancy of Puebla.

ANALYSIS.

the houses of the sun and moon, or the pyramidal monuments of Teotihuacan north-east from Mexico, are surrounded with a system of small pyramids arranged symmetrically. M. Grobert has published a very curious drawing of the equally regular disposition of the small pyramids which surround the Cheops and Mycerinus at Ghize. The teocalli of Cholula, if it is allowable to compare it with these great Egyptian monuments, appears to have been constructed on an analo. gous plan. We still discover on the western side, opposite the cerros of Tecaxete and Zapoteca, two completely prismatical masses. One of these masses now bears the name of Alcosac, or Istenenetl, and the other that of the Cerro de la Cruz. The elevation of the latter, which is -constructed en pisé, is only 15 metres*.

The intendancy of Puebla gratifies the curiosity of the traveller also with one of the most ancient monuments of vegetation. The famous ahahuetet, or cypress of the village of Atlixco, is 23. 3, or 73 feet in circumference. Measured interiorly (for its trunk is hollow) the diameter is 15 feet §. This cypress of Atlixco is, therefore, to within a few feet, of the same

* 49 feet. Trans. + Cupressus disticha. Lin.
76.4 feet English. Trans.

§16 feet English. Trans.

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