48

IIISTOUV OF .\liCIirj'KC-TUKH.' Boon I.

founded nictnls, and wore able to cut the hardest stone. (IIumlxMf, \ew Spain.
)
1 lie Aztecs
appeared in 1 \9C>, ami seem to have had a similar origin and language. Their works, though
they attest the infancy of art, bear a striking resemblance to several monuments of the most
civilised people. The rigid adherence of the people to tlie forms, opinions, and customs
which habit had rendered familiar to them, is common to all nations under a religious
and military despotism.
111. The edilices erected by the ^Mexicans for religious purposes were solid masses of
earth of a pyramidal shape, jKirtly faced with stone. They were called Teocallis (House;
of God). That of ancient Mexico, 318 ft. at the base and 121 ft. in height, consisted
of five stories
;
and, when seen at a distance, so truncated was tbe pyramid that the monu-
ment appeared an enorinous cube, with small altars covered by wooden cupolas on the top.
Tiie place where these cupolas terminated was elevated 177 fit. above the base of the
edifice or the pavement of the
enclosure. Hence we may ob-
serve that the Teocalli was very
similar in form to the ancient ino-
lunneut of Babylon, called the
Mausoleimi of Belus. The pyra-
mids of Teotiluiacan
{Jig. 77.),
which still remain in the iNIexican
Valley, have their faces within 52
minutes of a degree of the cardi-
nal points of the compass. Their
{,
piRAMiDs OF rKoriHUACAN
iutcrior Is clay, mixed with small
stones. Ihis kernel is covered with a thick wal! of porous amygdaloid. Traces are
perceived of a bed of lime, which externally covers the stone.
112. The great pyramid of Cholula
{Jig. 78.), the largest and most sacred temple in
^-^
Mexico, appears, at a distance,
"/l^-^^r
.-
__
^
'
-
^
-
,_^
^^
like a natural conical hill, wooded.
and crowned with a small church;
on apiiroaching it, its pyramidal
form becomes distinct, as well as
the four stories whereof it consists,
though they are covered with
vegetation. Humboldt compares
it to a square whose base is four
times that of the Place Vendome
at I'aris covered with bricks to a heiglit twice that of the Louvre. The height of it is 177 ft.
.
and the length of a side of the base r42:5 ft.. There is a fiight of 1 20 steps to the platform.
Subjoined is a comparative statement of the Egyptian and Mexican
pyran.ids ;

The Cholula pyramid is constructed with unburnt bricks and clay, in alternate iayer.i.
As in other Teocallix, there are cavities of considerable size, intended for sepulchres. In
cutting through one side of it to form the present road from Puebla to Mexico, a square
chamber was discovered, built of stones, and supported by beams of cyjiress wood. Two
skeletons were found in it and a number of curiously painted and varnished vases. Hum-
boldt, on an examination of the ruins, observed an arrangement of the bricks for the purpose
of diminishing the pressure on the roof, by the sailiiig over of the bricks horizontally. The
area on the top contains 3500 square yards, and was occui)ied by the Temple of Quetzal-
coatl, the God of Air, who has yielded his place to the Virgin. By the way, we may here
mention that tumuli are found in Virginia, Canada, and Peru, in which there are galleries
built of stone communicating with each other by shafts
;
but these are not surmounted by
temples.
1 13. In the northern part of the intei d^ncy of Vera Cruz, west from the mouth of the
Rio Tecolutla, two leagues distant from the great Indian village of Papantla, we meet
with a pyramidal edifice of great antitjuity. The pyramid of Papantla remained unknown
to the first conquerors. It is seated in the middle of a thick forest, and was only discovered
by some hunters about the year 181 (5. It is constructed of immense blocks of stone laid
in mortar; but is not so remarkable for its size as for its form and the perfection of its
finish, being only 80 ft. scjuare at the base, and not quite 60 ft. higli. A flight of fifty-s.ven