22 MEXICAN HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY. 



explorer will find a shapeless mass of burnt bricks, mortar, and earth, thickly over- 

 grown with shrubbery and aloes, among which there are several slabs of basalt 

 neatly squared, and laid due north and south, forming, in all likelihood, the only 

 fragments of one of those royal residences for which the Tezcocan princes were 

 celebrated by the conquerors. "When Mr. Poinsett visited Tezcoco, in 1825, this 

 heap had not been pillaged, for architectural purposes, as much as it has been since ; 

 and, among the ruins, he found a regularly arched and well-built passage, sewer, or 

 aqueduct, formed of cut stones of the size of bricks, cemented with the strong 

 mortar used by the aborigines of the Valley in all their works. In the door of a 

 room, he noticed the remains of a very flat arch, the stones of which were of 

 jorodigious bulk. 



In the southern portion of Tezcoco, are the extensive remains of three pyramidal 

 masses, whose forms were still tolerably perfect in 1842. They adjoin each other 

 in a direct line from north to south ; and, according to a rough measurement by 

 myself, are about 400 feet in extent on each front of their bases. These erections 

 were constructed partly of burnt and partly of sun-dried bricks, mixed with frag- 

 ments of pottery and thick coverings of cement, through which small canals had 

 been grooved to carry off the water from the upper terrace. Bernal Diaz del Cas- 

 tillo says that the chief teocalli of Tezcoco was ascended by 117 steps; and, from 

 the quantity of obsidian fragments, vessels, and images, found on the sides of these 

 structures, it may be surmised that, like the teocallis of the capital, they were 

 devoted to the same bloody rites that are described in the writings of the Spanish 

 chroniclers and of Mr. Prescott. 



About three miles east of Tezcoco, across the gently sloping levels, a sharp, coni- 

 cal mountain rises precipitously from the plain, and though now covered with a 

 thick growth of nopals, agaves, and bushes, seems to have been the site of some 

 Aztec or Tezcocan works of considerable importance. The hill is full of the debris 

 of ancient pottery and obsidian; and, about fifty feet below the top, facing the north, 

 the mountain rock has been cut into seats surrounding a sort of grotto or recess 

 in a steep wall, which tradition says was once covei'ed with a calendar. The 

 sculptures have been entirely destroyed by modern Indians, who cut them to 

 pieces in search for treasure, as soon as they found the spot became an object of 

 interest to foreigners. 



Winding downwards by the remains of ancient terraces cut in the hill, w r e find 

 the path suddenly terminated by an abrupt wall which plunges down the mountain 

 precipitously for two hundred feet. Here, another recess has been cut in the solid 

 rock, also surrounded by seats, while in the centre of the area is a basin, into which 

 the water was conveyed by a system of ingenious engineering. East of this hill, and 

 filling a ravine, are the remains of the stone, masonry, earthwork, and aqueduct 

 pipes, by which the ancients brought the mountain streams to the Hill of Tezco- 

 cingo, from the more eastern and loftier elevations. 1 



1 There is an account, in Spanish, of the palace and gardens of Nezahualcoyotl, at Tezcocingo, 

 extracted from Ixtlilxochil's History of the Chichimecas, in the third volume of Prescott 's History of 

 the Conquest of Mexico, p. 430, The hill referred to by the Indian historian is, probably, the one 

 whose remains I have noticed. 



