PYRAMID OF XOCH1CALCO. 



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THE PYRAMID OF XOCHICALCO. 



About eighteen miles south of Cuernavaca, in the State of Mexi- 

 co, there is a cerro or hill, known as Xochicalco or the " hill of 

 flowers," whose summit is occupied by the remains of an ancient 

 stone pyramid. The traveller reaches this eminence after travelling 

 over a wide plain intersected by deep barrancas, and almost entirely 

 denuded of trees and shrubbery. The base of this hill is surrounded 

 by the remains of a deep wide ditch, and its top is attained by five 

 spiral terraces, supported by walls of stone joined with cement. At 

 suitable distances from each other, along the edge of this winding 

 path are the remains of bulwarks fashioned like the bastions of a 

 fortification. On the summit there is a wide extensive level, the 

 eastern part of which is occupied by three truncated cones, resem- 

 bling the smaller mounds found among the pyramids of Teotihua- 

 can. On the other three sides of the esplenade there are other 

 masses of stones, which may have also been portions of similar 

 tumuli. The stones of which these lesser mounds were constructed 

 have evidently been nicely shaped and covered with a coat of stucco. 



Passing upward, amid tangled trees and vines, along the last ter- 

 race, and through the cornfield which is cultivated on the plain at 

 top by an Indian ranchero, the traveller at length stands before the 

 remains of the elegant structure that once crowned the summit with 

 its carved and massive architecture. The reports of engineers who 

 visited this pyramid in years long past, and the legends of the 

 neighborhood, declared that it originally consisted of five stories, 

 placed upon each other at regular intervals and separated by narrow 

 platforms. But of all these, nothing now remains except portions 

 of the first body, which is formed of cut porphyry and covered with 

 the singular emblems which are accurately represented in the an- 

 nexed plate of the north-western angle. 



Amid the neglect of the viceroyal government, and the revolu- 

 tionary disturbances subsequent to the rebellion against Spain, this 

 beautiful monument of ancient art, seems to have been entirely for- 

 gotten, save by the neighboring haciendados or planters, who used 

 it as a quarry, from which they might supply the wants of their 

 estates without the trouble or expense of a stone cutter. In the 

 middle of the eighteenth century the fine terraces were yet perfect. 

 But, as the country became settled in the neighborhood, the farmers 

 began to pilfer from the mass, and, not long before we visited it in 

 1842, an adjacent land owner had carried off large loads of the 

 sculptured stones to build a dam in a neighboring ravine, for the 

 use of his cattle. 



