128 



MEXICO, CENTRAL AMERICA, WEST INDIES. 



Fie 



51.— PUEBLA IN 1862. 

 Scale 1 : 120,000. 



have counted over 400 towers, all belonging to other sanctuaries." But a 

 few daj's after contemplating this panoramic view, the conqueror began the 

 work of destruction by fire and sword. Of the 400 temples nothing now 

 remains except a few shapeless mounds covered with vegetation. But one of 

 these lying to the south-east of the city is a veritable hill of bricks and layers of 

 earth, as shown by the explorations and the cuttings made for the road and the 

 railway passing at its foot. According to the local tradition this hill was con- 

 structed by order of a giant in honour of the god Tlaloc, who had saved him from 

 a deluge, and all the bricks used in the building were passed from hand to hand 

 by a string of workmen reaching all the way from the slopes of Popocatepetl 

 to Cholula. Its present height, though greatly diminished as shown by the 

 irregular sky-line, is 175 feet above the plain, while its enormous base covers an 



extent of 42 acres, nearly four 

 times more than that of the 

 pyramid of Cheops. No other 

 isolated human monument 

 approaches these» Viist propor- 

 tions. The platform on the 

 summit, where the chapel of 

 Our Lady de los Remedios 

 now replaces Quetzalcoatl's 

 temple, has an area of about 

 5,000 square yards, forming a 

 stupendous esplanade whence 

 the eye glances from the vil- 

 lage and gardens of Cho- 

 lula to the glittering domes of 

 Puebla, from the forest-clad 

 slopes of Malinche to the snows 

 of Popocatepetl. 



Before the construction of 

 the Vera Cruz railway Puebla 

 had as its outpost towards the Atlantic the town oiAnwzoc, at the converging point 

 of the roads to Jalapa and Orizaba. Tepeaca, a little farther on near the outer ram- 

 parts of the plateau, also possessed great strategical importance, and Cortes himself 

 had chosen this place as a stronghold and Spanish colony under the name of Sogura 

 de la Frontera, "Safeguard of the Frontier." Next to Vera Cruz, Tepeaca was the 

 earliest Spanish foundation in Mexico. This angular corner of the plateau has 

 suffered a loss of trade since the main line of the Mexican railways passes farther 

 north by Huamantla and 8an Aridres de Chalchicomida, the station dominated by 

 the tone of Orizaba. Near Chalchicomula, on the very edge of the plateau, the 

 station of Espcranza lies about midway on the main line between Mexico and 

 Yera Cruz. Although occupying a part of the plateau draining to the Pacific, 

 neither Puebla nor Cholula is connected by railway with that ocean. But the 



,300 Yards. 



