THE MONUMENT OF XOCHICALCO. 265 



rect on the common maps. Not far from Cuernavaca 

 was the monument of Xochicalco, an isolated pile three 

 hundred and fifty feet high. It was a mass of rocks to 

 which the hands of man had given a regular conic form. 

 It was divided into five stories, or terraces, each of which 

 was at least sixty feet high, but narrowed towards the 

 top. The hill was surrounded with a deep and broad 

 ditch ; the whole encampment was nearly twelve thou- 

 sand feet in circumference. The summit, which was an 

 oblong platform, two hundred and thirty feet from north 

 to south, and three hundred feet from east to west, was 

 encircled by a wall of hewn stone six or eight feet high. 

 Within this wall stood the remains of a pyramidal monu- 

 ment. It was originally five stories high, bat only the 

 first story remained ; for the owners of a neighbouring 

 sugar-house had demolished the rest, and used the stones 

 to build their ovens. There was no vestige of a stair- 

 case leading to the top of the pyramid, where, it was said, 

 there was once a stone seat, ornamented with hiero- 

 glyphics. The stones of the pyramid were beautifully 

 cut and polished, and decorated with reliefs. As each 

 of these reliefs occupied several stones, and as they were 

 interrupted by the joints, they must have been sculp- 

 tured after the edifice was finished. Among the hiero- 

 glyphical ornaments were heads of crocodiles spouting 

 water, and figures of men sitting cross-legged, after the 

 manner of some Asiatic nations. As the building was 

 on a plain four thousand feet above the sea, and croco- 

 diles haunted only the rivers near the coast, it was 

 strange that the architect should have sculptured them, 

 instead of the plants and animals that belong to moun- 

 tainous countries. 



12 



