262 



AZTECK BAS-RELIEF, 



FOUND IN THE 



GREAT SQUARE OF MEXICO. 



PLATE XXI. 



The cathedral of Mexico, represented in the 

 third plate, is built on the ruins of the teocalli, or 

 house of the God Mexitli. This pyramidal mo- 

 nument, constructed by king Ahuizotl, in I486, 

 was thirty-seven metres high from its basis to 

 the upper platform, whence there is an extensive 

 view over the lakes, the surrounding country 

 strown with villages, and the mountains that 

 skirt the valley. The platform, which served as 

 an asylum in battle, was crowned by two chapels 

 in the form of towers, each of which was seven- 

 teen or eighteen metres, so that the whole teo- 

 calli was fifty-four metres high. The heap of 

 stones, that formed the pyramid of Mexitli, was 

 used after the siege of Tenochtitlan, to raise the 

 Plaza Mayor. In digging eight or ten metres 

 deep, a great number of colossal idols, and other 



