SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. Ill 



little of its original form visible, and it now 

 resembles a natural hill ; the high road from 

 Puebla is cut through a part of it, which 

 serves to show its internal structure. Some 

 writers have conjectured that it was used as a 

 cemetery or burial-place ; others, that it was 

 intended as a place of defence, or for the per- 

 formance of public worship. We ascended 

 by a steep winding road, partly cut into 

 steps, to a level area of 140 feet long, on 

 which stands a very neat church, 90 feet in 

 length, with two towers and a dome : from 

 this exalted platform, the spectator enjoys 

 a most lovely landscape. The city of Choi- 

 lula, its great square, or market-place, crowded 

 with Indians (resembling what it was in the 

 time of Cortez), with its numerous churches, 

 gardens, &c. lay at our feet, and as the de- 

 lighted eye ranged over the extensive plain, 

 countless churches, haciendas, plantations of 

 aloes, and corn-fields, met the view, which 



