THE PYRAMIDS. 



147 



pidity, as usual in the afternoon, I began my survey in 

 solitude. Close to the town, there are a number of heaps 

 of rubbish, evidently ancient ; and I found them, upon 

 examination, to be chiefly composed of antique pottery, 

 fragments of obsidian knives, and arrow heads ; and the 

 same description applies to a great portion of the surface 

 of the plain between the town and the pyramids, which 

 lie in close proximity to the road leading to Otumba. 



As usual in this portion of the table land, the breath- 

 less heat of the morning had been succeeded in the after- 

 noon by partial whirlwinds ; and many moving pillars of 

 dust, some of more than a hundred feet in height, were 

 travelling over the country in every direction. One 

 passed close to me, and I was surprised by the rapidity 

 of the spiral movement, and the violence of the rushing 

 sound accompanying it. 



On nearing the vicinity of the pyramids, a mule path, 

 which leaves the smaller of the two more to the north- 

 ward, leads you in ten minutes' walk to the base of the 

 House of the Sun. # 



The distance between the two may be, perhaps, some- 

 thing short of half a mile. 



Time — and who shall determine how many revolu- 

 tions of the sun ? — the alternate heat and rain of tropical 

 summer and winter, the breath of the whirlwind, and the 

 feet and hands of innumerable generations, have conspired 

 to diminish the size of the huge mass of earth and stone, 

 and to destroy the symmetry of its form. The angles have 

 long ago lost their sharpness ; and the different platforms 

 or terraces much of their breadth ; still, three of the four 

 stories of which the great pyramid consisted are per- 

 fectly distinguishable, even at the distance of many miles. 

 In the smaller, they are more difficult to recognise. 



* The dimensions ordinarily given of the pyramids of San Juan 

 Teotihuacan are the following. Tonatiuh Ytzagual — the House of the 

 Sun: base line, 682 feet; perpendicular height, 180 feet. Mitzli 

 Ytzagual — the House of the Moon : height, 144 feet ; base, — . 



