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CHOLULA. 



It stands to the east of the present city, upon a base 

 of one thousand four hundred and twenty-five feet square ; 

 and originally consisted of four stages, terminating in a 

 platform, one hundred and seventy-seven feet above the 

 plain. 



It is now very difficult to trace the several proportions 

 among the slopes and brushwood, and the heaps of 

 crumbling brickwork with which its acclivity is covered. 



As soon as the sun was up we passed through the out- 

 skirts of the city, and round the foot of several elevated 

 mounds, evidently artificial in their origin, towards the 

 base of the teocalli. A little in advance are two enor- 

 mous masses of earth, displaying in their perpendicular 

 sides the regular courses of unburnt brick and clay, of 

 which they, as well as the principal pyramid, are wholly 

 constructed. A sloping road of modern formation leads 

 over the three lower divisions of the great pyramid to the 

 level of the third terrace, when you are conducted by a 

 flight of stone steps to the principal platform, upon which 

 the church with two towers and a dome has replaced the 

 ancient erection raised here by the Aztecs or their pre- 

 decessors, to the worship of their principal divinity, Quet- 

 zalcoatl. 



The area of the platform, according to a former trav- 

 eller, measures three thousand four hundred square yards. 

 Its sides are well faced with stone, and thus preserved ; 

 yet the waste of the soil has been so considerable on the 

 eastern side, that the building is there wholly supported 

 upon arches. 



Two large evergreen cypresses and a massive cross 

 stand before the principal entrance of the church. Many 

 groups of trees, principally " scliinus," are scattered over 

 the surface of the pyramid, and the view from the plat- 

 form, though not to be compared with those in the vicin- 

 ity of the capital for beauty, is of vast extent and great 

 interest, and includes the three great Nevadas of Mex- 

 ico — Popocatepetl, Iztaccihuatl, and Orizava, with their 

 advanced chains. 



How far the vulgar tradition that the great pyramid of 

 Cholula is hollow may be borne out by the fact, it is 



