90 



a considerable difference in the proportions be- 

 tween the base and the height in these various 

 monuments ; in the three great pyramids of 

 Geeza, the heights are to the bases as 1 to 1*7 ; 

 in the pyramid of Papantla covered with hiero- 

 glyphics, this ratio is as 1 to 1*4; in the great 

 pyramid of Teoiihnacan, as 1 to 3*7 ; and in 

 that of Cholula as 1 to 7' 8. This last monument 

 is built with unbaked bricks (xamilli), alternat- 

 ing with layers of clay. I have been assured 

 by some Indians of Cholula, that the inside is 

 hollow ; and that, during the abode of Cortez in 

 this city, their ancestors had concealed, in the 

 body of the pyramid, a considerable number of 

 warriors, who were to fall suddenly on the 

 Spaniards : but the materials with which the 

 teocalli is built, and the silence of the historians 

 of those times*, give but little probability to this 

 assertion. 



It is certain, however, that in the interior of 

 this pyramid, as in other teocallis, there are con- 

 siderable cavities, which were used as sepul- 

 chres for the natives. A particular circumstance 

 led to this discovery. Seven or eight years ago 

 the road from Puebla to Mexico, which before 

 passed to the north of the pyramid, was changed. 

 In tracing the road, the first story was cut 

 through, so that an eighth part remained isolated 



* Cartas de He man Cortez ; Mcxieo, 1770, p. 09. 



