SO HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



feet high, crowned with battlements, in the form of 

 niche's, and ornamented with many ftone figures in the 

 fiiape of ferpents, whence it obtained the name of Coate- 

 pantli, or the wall of ferpents. It had four gates to the 

 four cardinal points : the eaftern gate looked to a broad 

 ftreet which led to the lake of Tezcuco : the reft corre- 

 fponded to the three principal flreets of the city, the 

 broadeft and the ftraighteft, which formed a continuation 

 with thofe built upon the lake that led to Iztapalapan, 

 to Tacuba, and to Tepejacac. Over each of the four 

 gates was an arfenal filled with a vaft quantity of oifen- 

 five and defenfive weapons, where the troops went when 

 it was neceffary, to be fupplied with arms. The fpace 

 within the walls was curioufly paved with fuch fmooth 

 and polifhed ftones that the horfes of the Spaniards could 

 not move upon them without flipping and tumbling down. 

 In the middle was raifed an immenfe folid building of 

 greater length than breadth (z), covered with fquare 

 equal pieces of pavement. The building confifted of five 

 bodies nearly equal in height, but differing in length and 

 breadth ; the higheft being narrower!:. The firft body, 

 or bafis of the building, was more than fifty perches long 

 from eaft to weft, and about forty-three in breadth, from 

 north to fouth (a). The fecond body was about a perch 

 lefs in length and breadth than the firft ; the third as 



much 



(z) Sahagun make3 the temple perfectly fquare, but the Anonymous Con- 

 , queror, both in the defcription and in the figure which he has left us, reprefents 

 it to have been of greater length than breadth, like thofe of Teotihuacan which 

 ferved as models for all the reft. 



(a) Sahagun gives to the firft body upon every fide three hundred and fixty 

 Toledan feet, and that is the meafure of its length. Gomara gives it fifty brazas, 

 which is the meafure of its breadth. Three hundred and fixty Toledan feet 

 make three hundred and eight Parifian, or a little more than fifty perches. 

 Fifty brazas, or ejlados make two hundred and fifty-feven Parifian feet, or about 

 forty-two perches. 



