120 ARCHITECTURE. 
entirely covered with hieroglyphics. In all the stories are found qua- 
drangular niches symmetrically arranged, and numbering in the aggregate, 
according to Alexander von Humboldt, 318, corresponding with the number 
of single signs constituting the calendar of the Toltecs. 
The most important monument of the district of Anahuac is, however, the 
pyramid of Cholula, situated on a plateau 6700 feet above the level of the sea, 
and facing exactly the four quarters of the heavens. Its summit is accessible 
from all four sides, and its general arrangements have many affinities to those 
of the Egyptian pyramids. It is nine feet higher than the pyramid of Gizeh, 
and nearly twice as high as that of Cheops. It contained spacious vaults 
which served as burial-places, and on its platform, which measured 1050 
square feet, stood in the times of the Aztecs an altar dedicated to the air, 
which the Spaniards replaced by the church Nuestra Dama de los Remedios, 
probably occupying a higher site than any other church. 
A very curious monument is a temple at Xochicalco, near the town of 
Quernavaca, which is at the same time a kind of fortress (fig. 2). It con- 
sists of a natural rock, 360 feet high, wrought by hand into a tolerably 
accurate pyramidal shape, and surrounded by a ditch, thus forming a 
redoubt, or a fortified temple. Its summit has an area of about 2500 square 
feet, and is surrounded by a wall for the protection of the defenders. The 
regularity of the construction of this wall of porphyry is highly spoken of 
by travellers, as well as the clearness of the bas-reliefs which decorate it. 
Among the figures represented in the latter are crocodiles, and, what is 
very curious, human figures in the sitting posture of the East with crossed 
legs. Each figure covers several stones whose joints are so carefully closed 
as not to disturb the surfaces of the sculptures in the least. 
The -question whether there is any connexion between the Mexican 
pyramids and those of Egypt has not yet been decided. It is characteristic 
in the former that they always appear as huge substructures for temples or 
altars. The latter were always placed in the highest possible spots by the 
Mexicans, and where they did not find natural rocks in which they could eut 
stairs to gain access to the summit, they constructed artificial pyramids. 
Traces of a well developed ancient architecture are also found in the dis- 
trict of Tlascala, situated between the territories of Mexico, Cholula, and 
Huexotzinco. The aborigines of this district had surrounded their capital 
with walls, and erected a thoroughly fortified camp, for which the nature of 
the ground afforded the best facilities. Its western extremity was closed by 
a deep ditch and high walls. On the eastern side was a wall of twenty-five 
miles in length, whilst the northern side was effectively protected by a 
number of strong positions in the chain of the Cordilleras. Within this 
inclosure the people asserted their independence from Mexico and wor- 
shipped the sun, whilst all around them a sanguinary worship had already 
been introduced. /%g.1 gives the view of a bridge across the ditch which 
lay in the line of defence, from which it appears that the Tlascalans had 
only an imperfect knowledge of the art of constructing vaults, and that their 
method of construction was similar to that of the Cyclopean walls, which 
is the primitive architecture of all nations. 
120 
