84 



and to Huitzilopochtli, the god of war. It was 

 built by the Aztecks, on the model of the pyra- 

 mids of Teotihuaean, six years only before the 

 discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. 

 This truncated pyramid, called by Cortez the 

 principal temple, was ninety-seven metres in 

 breadth at its basis, and nearly fifty-four metres 

 in height. It is not astonishing, that a building 

 of these dimensions should have been destroyed 

 a few years after the siege of Mexico. In 

 Egypt there scarcely remains any vestiges of 

 the enormous pyramids, which towered amidst 

 the waters of the lake Mceris, and which Hero- 

 dotus says were ornamented with colossal statues.. 

 The pyramids of Porsenna, of which the de- 

 scription seems somewhat fabulous, and four of 

 which, according to Varro, were more than 

 eighty metres in height, have equally disappeared 

 in Etruria *; 



But if the European conquerors overthrew 

 the teocallis of the Aztecks, they did not alike 

 succeed in destroying more ancient monuments^ 

 that are attributed to the Tolteck nation. We 

 shall give a succinct description of these monu- 

 ments, remarkable for their form and magni- 

 tude. 



The group of the pyramids of Teotihuaean is 

 in the valley of Mexico*- eight leagues north- 



* Plin. xxxvi, 19. 



