HILL OF XOCHICALCO ITS STRUCTURES. 285 



The story of this pyramid that has been thus far spared, is rec- 

 tangular ; and, facing north, south, east and west, in exact corres- 

 pondence with the cardinal points, it measures sixty-four feet on 

 its northern front above the plinth., and fifty-eight on the western. 

 The distance between the plinth and frieze, is about ten feet, the 

 breadth of the frieze is three feet and a half, and the height of the 

 cornice one foot and five inches. The most perfect portion is the 

 northern front ; and, here, the carving in relief, which is between 

 three and four inches deep, is most distinctly visible. The massive 

 stones, — some of which are seven feet eleven inches long, by two 

 feet nine inches wide ; five feet two inches long, and two feet six 

 inches broad, and five feet long, two feet seven inches high, and 

 four feet seven inches broad, — are all laid upon each other without 

 cement, and kept together simply by the pressure and gravity of the 

 general architecture. These dimensions of the fragments of so 

 splendid an edifice will give the reader an idea of the labor and in- 

 genuity which were employed in its construction. For it must be 

 remembered, that not only was the Indian skill taxed in the design 

 and shaping of the stones in the immediate neighborhood, but that 

 the weighty materials were drawn from a considerable distance, and 

 borne up a hill three hundred feet in height, without the use of horses. 

 The terraces supporting the spiral path, and their bastion-like bul- 

 warks, were subjects of equal labor; while the broad deep ditch, sur- 

 rounding the whole, was in itself a work exacting the most patient 

 industry. Few nations have probably devoted more time and toil to 

 a work which was perhaps partly religious and partly defensive. 



These are the external works upon the Cerro of Xochicalco, but 

 it appears from good authority, and from the report of the neighbor- 

 hood, that the hill itself was partly hollowed into chambers. Some 

 years since a party of gentlemen, under the orders of government, 

 explored these subterranean retreats, and, after groping through 

 dark and narrow passages, whose side walls are covered with a 

 hard and glistening gray cement, they came to three entrances be- 

 tween two enormous pillars cut from the rock of which the hill is 

 formed. Through these portals they entered a chamber, whose 

 roof was a cupola of regular shape, built of stones placed in circles, 

 while at the top of the dome was an aperture, which probably led 

 to the surface of the earth or the summit of the pyramid. Nebel, 

 who visited the ruins seme years ago, relates an Indian tradition, 

 that this aperture ascended immediately above an altar placed in 

 this chamber, and that the sun's rays fell directly on the centre of 

 the shrine when that luminary was vertical! 



