DESCRIPTION OF THE PYRAMID. 



197 



from this secluded hamlet, lie spread over the plain, the massive 

 ruins of an ancient city, which in its palmy days was more than a 

 mile and a half in circuit. It is a matter of great regret that these 

 relics have never been sufficiently explored, drawn and described. 

 The most satisfactory account that we possess of them is that given 

 in the "Voyage Pittoresque et Archeologique " of Monsieur Nebel, 

 who visited them several years ago, and has sketched the beautiful 

 pyramid represented in the plate, which is unquestionably one of 

 the most perfect and symmetrical relics of antiquity within the present 

 limits of the republic. Time has done its work upon this remarka- 

 ble remain ; and trees, plants and vines, which grow so rapidly in 

 this teeming climate, have sprung among its joints and stories. 



The Indians of the neighborhood call this pyramid " El Tajin ;" 

 it consists of seven bodies, stages or stories, each of which rises at 

 the same angle of inclination, and is terminated by a frieze and cor- 

 nice. It is constructed of sand stone beautifully squared, joined 

 and covered with hard stucco, which appears to have been painted. 

 The pyramid measures one hundred and twenty feet on every side 

 at its base, and is ascended by a stair composed of fifty seven steps, 

 each measuring one foot in height, and terminating at the top of the 

 sixth story. This stairway is divided in three places, by square re- 

 cesses two feet in depth, resembling those which perforate the 

 friezes on each of the stories. The stair ends at the top of the sixth 

 story, and the seventh, which seems to be in ruins, is hollow, and 

 was probably the shrine wherein sacrifices were offered before the 

 image of the god to whom the pyramid was dedicated. Monsieur 

 Nebel does not state the height of this edifice ; but as he gives the 

 elevation of each of the fifty-seven steps, we may calculate that the 

 summit of the shrine is at least sixty-six feet above the base. 



ANCIENT HEADS MADE OF CLAY. 



