144 A P P E iN D I X . 



imposing ruins of Cholula, Papantla, Mitia, Xoxachalco, Misantla, Quemada, and 

 the thousand other monuments which are yet unrecorded by the antiquary, and 

 which invest every sierra and valley of Mexico with an interest hardly less absorb- 

 ing than that which lingers around the banks of the Nile. 



From the number of these religious structures, we gather some idea of the pre- 

 dominance of Mexican superstitions. Solis speaks of eight temples in the city of 

 Mexico, of nearly equal grandeur with that above described, and estimates those 

 of smaller size to amount to two thousand in number, " dedicated to as many idols 

 of different names, forms, and attributes." Torquemada estimates the number of 

 temples in the Mexican empire at fo7-ty thousand, and Clavigero places the number 

 far higher. " The architecture," he adds, " of the great temples was for the most 

 part the same with that of the great temple of Mexico ; but there were many like- 

 wise of a different structure, composed of a single body in the form of a pyramid, 

 with a staircase, etc." Gomera says, " they were almost aU of the same form ; so 

 that what we shall say of the principal temple, will suffice to explain ah the others." 

 Cortez, in a letter to Charles V., dated October 30, 1520, states that he counted 

 four hundred of these pyramidal temples at Cholula. 



From all sources we gather that the principal temples, or rather sacred places 

 of Mexico, consisted of large square areas, surrounded by walls, with passages 

 midway at their sides, from which sometimes led off avenues or roads, and that 

 within these enclosures were pyramidal structures of various sizes, dedicated to 

 different divinities, as also the residences of the priests, with groves, walks, etc. 



Proceeding to Central America, we still find, so far as we are informed con- 

 cerning the remains of these countries, the sacred enclosure and the pyramidal 

 temple. The enclosure surrounding the sacred edifices of Tuloom, already 

 described in another connection (page 98), was most probably the consecrated 

 ground of the ancient inhabitants. Its rectangular form and the position of its 

 gateways go far to connect it with the corresponding structures of Mexico and 

 the United States. Grijalva, the first discoverer of Yucatan, alluding perhaps to 

 these very structures of Tuloom, " saw several places of worship and temples, 

 wide at the bottom and hollow at the top, stately stone buildings, at the foot of 

 which was an enclosure of lime and stone," Del Rio assures us that the principal 

 structures, the temples, of Palenque, were placed in " the centre of a rectangular 

 area, three hundred yards in breadth, and four hundred and fifty in length." Assum- 

 ing the word " yard " to be a translation of the Spanish vara, which is about thirty- 

 three inches in length, we have the dimensions of this area, 825 by 1240 feet, 

 Herrara relates, concerning the building of the town of Mayapan, by the ancient 

 inhabitants of Yucatan : 



" They pitched upon a spot, eight leagues from the place where Merida now 

 stands, and fifteen from the sea, where they made an enclosure of about half a 

 quarter of a league [on each side ?], being a wall of dry stone with only two gates. 

 They built terqples, calling the greatest of them Cuculcan, and near to the enclosure 

 the houses of the prime men. * * It was afterwards ordered that, since the 

 enclosure was only for the temples, the houses of the people should be built round 

 &honV'— {Herrara, Vol. IV., p. 162.) 



