TEMPLE PYRAMID OF TEPOXTLAN'^ 



By Eduard Seler 



The causeway leading from the City of Mexico, which runs south- 

 ward, formerly through (he waters of the salt lake itself, now through 

 meadow land, to Churubusco, the ancient Uitzilopochco, where the 

 road branches off to Chalco, and to the margin of the great lava 

 stream, which extends from a little volcano below the lofty Cerro 

 de Ajusco to the plain lying 2,300 meters above the sea. A traveler 

 leaving the city by this road sees before him a high mountain range, 

 which connects the towering Ajusco with the snow-capped cone of 

 Popocatepetl and in this direction forms the termination of the 

 undrained basin of Mexico. This mountain range is crossed frpm 

 Xochimilco by a long, gradualh^ ascending path, which finalh^ leads 

 into extensive pine forests covering the whole breadth of the ridge. 

 Another road, from Chalco, runs in the valley of Amecameca, 

 immediately at the western base of Popocatepetl, to a less elevated 

 path. In both places the mountain slopes on the south quite pre- 

 cipitously to the valleys below, the streams of which flow into the 

 Rio de las Balsas. These are the valleys of Cuernavaca, situated 

 about 1,000 meters above the sea, and of Yautepec, lying about 500 

 meters lower. They have been celebrated from ancient times for 

 their mild climate. Here the Mexican kings had their pleasure gar- 

 dens, in Avhich they cultivated plants of the tierra caliente that did 

 not thrive in Mexico itself. Cortes did not fail to include this dis- 

 trict within the limits of his marquesado, and the viceroys, and also 

 the unfortunate Maximilian, loved to sojourn in this favored vale. 

 Midway between Yautepec and Cuernavaca, directly at the foot 

 of the \oitj mountain range towering on the north, on a riblike 

 spur at the upper end of a range of hills and ridges which divides the 

 valleys of Yautepec and Cuernavaca, in the center of a small plain 



" Die Tempel pyramide von Tepoztlan, Globus, v. 73, n. 8. 



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