^e A NATURALIST IN MEXICO. 



years of labor, and several millions of dollars, were spent 

 in its construction. The edifice stands on the spot which 

 was once occupied by the great Aztec Teocalli, or temple, 

 dedicated to the war-god of the nation. The Spaniards 

 destroyed the ancient temple, as soon as they became 

 masters of the country, and built a church upon its site; 

 this was soon after pulled down, and the present edifice 

 erected in"its place. The ancient temple was said to have 

 been pyramidal in form, the summit one hundred and fifty 

 feet above the ground, reached by broad stone steps. Hu- 

 man sacrifices were said to have been made here daily; wars 

 were made with neighboring tribes to supply victims for the 

 altar. The accounts of the Spanish chroniclers areprobably 

 greatly exaggerated, if not pure fabrications. The facade 

 of the present edifice, at each side of which rises a massive 

 tower, crowned by a bell-shaped dome, is divided by but- 

 tresses into three parts. The towers are each over two 

 hundred feet in height, of Doric and Ionic architecture. In 

 the western tower is the great bell, named after the patron 

 saint of Mexico, Santa Maria de Guadalupe, which measures 

 nineteen feet in height, being the largest, in size and 

 weight, in the world. The basso-relievos, statues, and 

 friezes of the fagade are of white marble. The structure 

 .measures over four hundred feet in length, and two hundred 

 in width, and is in shape like a cross. Its roof is supported 

 by pillars, each thirty-five feet in circumference, and is one 

 hundred and seventy-five feet from the floor. The high 

 altar was once the richest in the world, but during the var- 

 ious revolutions, this — and the other six — has been de- 

 spoiled, and millions of dollars have been put in circulation 

 from it. The candlesticks were of solid gold, and the 

 statue of the Assumption was of the same metal, and studded 

 with rubies and diamonds. But with all its losses, the 

 church is decorated as no other on the American Continent. 



