MEXICAN HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY. 23 



A ride on horseback of three hours will bring a traveller from Tezcoco, north- 

 eastwardly, to the village of San Juan, lying in a plain hemmed in by mountain 

 spurs and ridges on all sides except towards the east, where a depression in the 

 chain leads into the plain of Otumba. In the centre of this valley of San Juan 

 are the two pyramids known as the Tonatiuh-Ytzagual, or House of the Sun, and 

 the Meztli-Ytzagual, or House of the Moon, and generally denominated the Pyra- 

 mids of Teotihuacan. At the distance from which they are first beheld in crossing 

 the hills, the foliage and bushes that cover them are not easily discerned ; but as 

 they are approached, the work of nature appears to have encroached on that of art 

 to such a degree, that all the sharp outlines of the pyramid are blurred and broken. 

 In advancing towards these works, the evident traces of an old road, covered for 

 several inches with hard cement, may still be observed ; and, at their feet, smaller 

 mounds and stone heaps extend in long lines from the southern side of the " House 

 of the Moon." Earth and perhaps adobes, seem to have been the chief materials 

 used in the erection of these pyramids ; but, in many places, the remains of a thick 

 coating of cement with which they were incrusted in the days of their perfection, 

 were still to be found in the year 1842. The base line of the House of the Sun is 

 stated, by Mr. Glennie, to be 682 feet, and its perpendicular height 121. 



Returning again to the city of Mexico, and going thence southward over the 

 mountain barrier that surrounds the valley of Mexico, we descend into the warmer 

 regions of the valley of Cuernavaca; and, about eighteen miles south of the town 

 of that name, near the latitude north of 18 i degrees, but still in the State of Mex- 

 ico, we encounter the Cerro of Xochicalco, or "hill of flowers," which, a few years 

 back, was still crested by the remains of a stone pyramid. The base of the hill is 

 reached across a wide plain intersected by ravines, and is surrounded by the remains 

 of a deep wide ditch. The summit is gained by winding along five spiral terraces, 

 supported with stones joined by cement. Along the edge of this winding path are 

 the remains of bulwarks fashioned like the bastions of a fortification. On the top 

 of the hill there is a broad level, the eastern portion of which is occupied by three 

 truncated cones, while on the three other sides of the esplanade there are masses 

 of stones, (which may have formed parts of similar tumuli), all of which were 

 evidently carefully cut and covered with stucco. In the centre of the area are the 

 remains of the first story or body of the pyramid, which, before its destruction by 

 the neighboring planters, who used the carved and squared stones for building, is 

 said to have consisted of five pyramidal masses placed on each other, somewhat in 

 the style of the pyramid of Papantla. The story that has been spared is rectau- 



Outline of part of Xochicalco. 



