MEXICO. 243 



that on the banks of the Nile. Some of these pyramids 

 might rather be called towers. They consist of a series of 

 truncated pyramids placed one above another, each successive 

 one being smaller than the one on which it immediately rests 

 thus standing in reality upon a platform or terrace. The 

 great pyramidal tower of Cholula is of this character, resem- 

 bling somewhat the temple of Belus, according to the descrij> 

 tion given of it by Herodotus. It reaches a height of ,177) 

 feet, and the length of each side of its base is 1440 feet. In 

 its neighbourhood are two other pyramids teocalles, as they 

 are called of smaller dimensions. These temples, or teocalles, 

 were very numerous, and in each of the principal cities there 

 were several hundreds of them. The top, on which was a 

 broad area, was reached by a flight of steps. On this area 

 were one or two towers forty or fifty feet high, in which 

 stood the images of the presiding deities. In front of the 

 towers was the stone of sacrifice, and two lofty altars, on 

 which fires were kept burning, inextinguishable as those in 

 the temple of Vesta. In the great temple of Mexico there 

 were said to be six hundred of these altars, the fires from 

 which illuminated the streets through the darkest night. 



Deeply interesting as is the subject of the architecture and 

 the remarkable state of civilization of the Aztecs, we must 

 not dwell longer upon it, except to mention the cyclopean 

 roads and bridges, constructed of huge blocks of stone, and 

 carried on a continuous level, across valleys, which still 

 remain. There are also, in various parts of the country, ex- 

 cavations, rock-hewn halls, and caverns, generally dome- 

 shaped, the centre apartment lighted through an aperture in 

 the vault. They somewhat resemble the cyclopean fabric 

 near Argos, called the Treasury of Atreus. Not only the 



