island, which served for foundation to the Teocalli, or Teopan, i. e. the house of God, afterwards called by the Spaniards the Great Temple of Mexitli.

The first Teocalli around which the new city was built was of wood, like the most ancient Grecian temple, that of Apollo at Delphi, described by Pausanias. The stone edifice of which Cortez and Bernal Diaz admired the symmetry was constructed on the same spot by King Ahuitzotl in the year 1486. It was a pyramidal monument, of 37* metres in height, situated in the middle of a vast inclosure of walls, and consisted of five stories, like several pyramids of Sacara, and particularly that of Mehedun. The Teocalli of Tenochtitlan, very accurately laid out, like all the Egyptian, Asiatic, and Mexican pyramids, contained 97 metres † of base, and formed so truncated a pyramid, that when seen from a distance the monument appeared an enormous cube,

121 feet. Trans.

+ 318 feet.

Trans.

with small altars, covered with wooden cupolas on the top. The point where these cupolas terminated was 54 metres elevated above the base of the edifice or the pavement of the inclosure *. We may see from these details that the Teocalli bore a strong resemblance in form to the ancient monument of Babylon, called by Strabo the Mausoleum of Belus, which was only a pyramid dedicated to Jupiter Belust. Neither the Teocalli nor the Babylonian edifice were temples in the sense which we attach to the word, according to the ideas derived by us from the Greeks and Romans. All edifices consecrated to Mexican divinities formed truncated pyramids. The great monuments of Teotihuacan, Cholula, and Papantla, still in preservation, confirm this idea, and indicate what the more inconsiderable temples were in the cities of Tenochtitlan aud Tezcuco. Covered altars were placed on the top of the Teocallis; and these edifices must hence be classed with the pyramidal ↑ Zoega de Obeliscis, p. 50.

* 177 feet. Trans.

monuments of Asia, of which traces were anciently found even in Arcadia; for the conical mausoleum of Callistus was a true tumulus, covered with fruit trees, and served for base to a small temple consecrated to Diana.

We know not of what materials the Teocalli of Tenochtitlan was constructed. The historians merely relate, that it was covered with a hard and smooth stone. The enormous fragments which are from time to time discovered around the present cathedral are of porphyry, with a base of grünstein filled with amphibolos and vitreous feld-spath. When the square round the cathedral was recently paved, carved stones were found at a depth of ten and twelve metrest. Few nations have moved such great masses as were moved by the Mexicans. The calendar stone and the sacrifice stone, exposed to public view in the Great Square, contain from eight to ten cubic metres 1.

* Pausanias, lib. viii. c. 35. † 32 and 38 feet. Trans, From 282 to 353 cubic feet. Trans.

*

The colossal statue of Teoyaomiqui, covered with hieroglyphics, lying in one of the vestibules of the university, is metres in length and three in breadtht. M. Gamboa, one of the canons, assured me, that on digging opposite the chapel of the Sagrario, a carved rock was found among an immense quantity of idols belonging to the Teocalli, which was seven metres in length, six in breadth, and three in height. They endeavoured in vain to remove it.

The Teocalli was in ruins § a few years after the

* The number in the original here, 2, is evidently erroneous. Trans.

† 9 feet. Trans.

227, 193, and 94 feet. Trans.

One of the oldest and most valuable manuscripts preserved at Mexico is the Book of the Municipality (Libro del Cabildo). Father Pichardo, a respectable religioso in the convent of San Felipe Neri, well versed in the history of his. country, shewed me this manuscript, which was begun on the 8th March, 1524, three years after the siege. It speaks of the square where the great temple stood (la plaza adonde estaba el templo major).

siege of Tenochtitlan, which, like that of Troy, ended in an almost entire destruction of the city. I am therefore inclined to believe that the exterior of the truncated pyramid was clay, covered with porous amygdaloid called tetzontli. In fact, a short time before the construction of the temple under the reign of King Ahuitzotl, the quarries of this cellular and spongy rock began to be worked. Now nothing could be easier destroyed than edifices constructed of porous and light materials, like pumice-stone. Notwithstanding the coincidence of a great number of accounts, it is

*

If those who have left us descriptions and plans of the Teocalli, instead of measuring it themselves, have merely related what they were told by the Indians, this coincidence proves less than might at first be believed. There are uniform traditions in every country as to the size of edifices, the height of towers, the breadth of crateres, and the descent of cataracts. National pride delights to exaggerate these dimensions, and travellers agree in their accounts so long as they draw from the same source. However, in this particular case the exaggeration of the height was not probably very