89 



equal height. It appears to have been con- 

 structed exactly in the direction of the four 

 cardinal points ; but as the edges of the stories 

 are not very distinct, it is difficult to ascertain 

 their primitive direction. This pyramidal mo- 

 nument has a broader basis than that of any 

 other edifice of the same kind in the old con- 

 tinent. I measured it carefully, and ascertained, 

 that its perpendicular height is only fifty metres, 

 but that each side of its basis is four hundred 

 and thirty-nine metres in length. Torquemada 

 computes its height at seventy-seven metres ; 

 Betancourt, at sixty-five ; and Clavigero, at 

 sixty-one. Bernal Diaz del Castillo, a common 

 soldier in the army of Cortez, amused himself 

 by counting the steps of the staircases, which 

 led to the platform of the teocallis : he found 

 one hundred and fourteen in the great temple of 

 Tenochtitlan, one hundred and seventeen in that 

 of Texcuco, and one hundred and twenty in that 

 of Cholula. The basis of the pyramid of Cholu- 

 la is twice as broad as that of Cheops ; but its 

 height is very little more than that of the pyra- 

 mid of Mycerinus. On comparing the dimensions 

 of the house of the Sun, at Teotihuacan, with 

 those of the pyramid of Cholula, we see, that the 

 people, who constructed these remarkable monu- 

 ments, intended to give them the same height, 

 but with bases, the length of which should be 

 in the proportion of one to two. We find also 



