~ 360 CITY OF MEXICO. 
buildings are remarkably beautiful. Two kinds of 
hewn stone, a porous amygdaloid and a glassy fel- 
spar porphyry, are used. The houses are not loaded 
with decorations, nor disfigured by wooden balconies 
and galleries. The roofs are terraced ; and the streets, 
which are clean and well lighted, have very broad 
pavements. The water of the lake is brackish, as is 
that of all the wells; but the city is supplied by 
two fine aqueducts. The objects which generally 
attract the notice of travellers are, 1. The cathedral, 
which has two towers ornamented with pilasters 
and statues; 2. The treasury; 3. The convents, of 
which the most distinguished is that of St Francis ; 
4. The hospital ; 5. The acordada, a fine building, 
of which the prisons are spacious and well aired ; 
6. The school of mines; 7. The botanical garden ; 
8. The university ; 9. The academy of fine arts ; 
10. The equestrian statue of Charles IV. in the 
great square. 
Few remains of ancient monuments are to be 
found in the town or its vicinity. Of those that ex- 
ist, the chief are the ruins of the Aztec dikes and 
aqueducts; the sacrificial stone, adorned with a re- 
lievo representing the triumph of a Mexican king ; 
the great calendar in the plaza mayor ; the colossal 
statue of the goddess 'Teoyaomiqui in one of the 
galleries of the university; the Aztec manuscripts 
or hieroglyphical pictures preserved in the house of 
the viceroys ; and the foundations of the palace be- 
longing to the sovereigns of Alcolhuacan at Tezcuco. 
The only remarkable antiquities in the valley of 
Mexico are the remains of the two pyramids of San 
Juan de Teotihuacan, to the north-east of the lake 
of Tezcuco, consecrated to the sun and moon. One 
