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MISANTLA. 



lofty wall of hills from whose summit the sea in the neighborhood 

 of Nautla is distinctly visible. The table lands upon which the 

 ruins are found is only approachable by the gentler declivities in 

 the direction of the hill of Estillero ; and, at all other points, 

 the lonely eminence appears to have been sundered from the sur- 

 rounding regions by some volcanic convulsion. 



MISANTLA. 



As the mountain plain on the summit is approached, the traveller 

 first discovers a broken wall of massive stones, feebly united by 

 cement, which seems to have served for the boundary of a circular 

 plaza or area in whose centre rises a pyramid eighty feet high, forty- 

 nine feet broad, and forty-two deep. It is divided into three stories 

 or stages, and along the sloping sides of the lower and broadest ter- 

 race, a stairway leads to the first offset. The second stage is 

 ascended by a stair at the side, and the top of the third is reached 

 by steps niched into the corner of the pyramid. In front of the 

 edifice, on the second story, are two pilastral columns, which it is 

 supposed may have been portions of the stairway ; but this part of 

 the teocalli, and its upper story are so wildly overgrown with trees 

 and tropical vegetation that the outline of the structure is greatly ob- 

 literated. On the summit, a gigantic tree, has sent its roots deep into 

 the spot which was doubtless once the shrine of the Indian temple. 



