99 



stadia square. A common Olympic stadium was 

 one hundred and eighty-three metres : the 

 Egyptian stadium was only ninety-eight*. The 

 pyramid was built of brick and asphaltum. A 

 temple (vxo$) was erected on its top, and another 

 at its basis. The first, according to Herodotus, 

 was without statues ; it contained only a table of 

 gold, and a bed on which reposed a female 

 chosen by the god Belus -fr. Diodorus Siculus, 

 on the other hand, asserts, that the upper temple 

 contained an altar, and three statues, to which, 

 according to notions taken from the worship of 

 the Greeks, he gave the names of Jupiter, Juno, 

 and Rhea J. But neither these statues nor any 

 part of the monument existed in the time of Dio- 

 dorus and Strabo. In the Mexican teocallis, 

 as in the temple of Belus, the lower naos was 

 distinguished from the temple on the platform 

 of the pyramid. The same distinction is clearly 

 pointed out in the letters of Cortez, and in the 

 history of the conquest written by Bernal Diaz, 

 who dwelt several months in the palace of the 

 king Axajacatl, and consequently opposite the 

 teocalli of Hiiitzilopochtli, 



* Vincent, Voyage of Nearchus, p. 50 (French transla- 

 tion). 



t Herodotus, lib. 1, c. 181, 183. 



\ Diodorus Siculus, Ed, WesseJingiana, vol. \, lib. 2, page 

 123, 



H 2 



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