110 



civilization, have built walls, which separate 

 whole provinces. 



The summit of the hill of Xochicalco is an 

 oblong platform, seventy-two metres from north 

 to south, and ninety-six from east to west. This 

 platform is encircled by a wall of hewn stone, 

 more than two metres high, which served as a 

 defence for the combatants. In the centre of 

 this spacious military square, we find the re- 

 mains of a pyramidical monument, which had 

 five stories, the form of which resembled the teo- 

 callis we have already described. The first story 

 only has been preserved, and it is that which is 

 represented in the ninth plate. The owners of a 

 sugar house near the spot demolished like barba- 

 rians the pyramid, and employed the stones to 

 build their ovens. The Indians of Tetlama 

 assert, that the five stories still existed in 1750 ; 

 and from the dimensions of the first story we may 

 conjecture, that the edifice was twenty metres 

 high. Its faces are exactly fronting the four 

 cardinal points. The base of the edifice is 20*7 

 metres in length, and 17*4 in breadth. It is 

 very remarkable, that no vestige of a staircase 

 can be discovered leading to the top of the pyra- 

 mid, where formerly it is asserted there was a 

 stone seat (ximotlalli), ornamented with hiero- 

 glyphics. 



Travellers, who examine attentively this work 

 of the native tribes of America, cannot fail to be 



