HISTORY OF MEXICO. 3t 



was the fame with Tezcutzinco, fo celebrated by Vala- 

 des, in his Christian Rhetoric, or the fame with that re* 

 nowned tower of nine bodies, erected by the king Neza- 

 hualcojptl, to the Creator of heaven. The great tem- 

 ple of Cholula, like many others of that city, was dedi- 

 cated to their protector Quetzalcoatl. All the old hif- 

 torians fpeak with wonder of the number of the temples 

 in Cholula. Cortes wrote to the emperor Charles V. 

 that from the top of one temple he had counted more 

 than four hundred towers of others (/). The lofty py- 

 ramid raifed by the Toltecas remains to this day, in that 

 place where there was formerly a temple confecrated to 

 that falfe deity, and now a holy fan&uary of the mother 

 of the true God ; but the pyramid from its great anti- 

 quity is fo covered with earth and buflies, that it feems 

 more like a natural eminence than an edifice. We are 

 ignorant, indeed, of its dimenfions, but its circumference 

 in the lower part is not lefs than half a mile (g). One 

 may afcend to the top by a path made in a fpiral direction 

 round the pyramid, and I went up on horfeback in 1 744. 

 This is that famous hill about which fo many fables have 

 been feigned, and which Boturini believed to have been 

 raifed by the Toltecas as a place of refuge in the event 

 of another deluge like Noah's. 



The 



(/ ) " Certifico a vueftra Alteza que yo conte defder una mezquita quatro 

 cientas y tantas " torres en la dicha ciudad (de Cholula) y todas fon de mezqui- 

 tas." Letter to Charles V. 061. 30, 1520. The anonymous conqueror affirms, 

 that he counted one hundred and ninety towers of the temples and palaces. Ber- 

 nal Diaz fays, that they exceeded a hundred ; but it is probable, that the two 

 authors counted thofe only which were remarkable for their height. Some 

 later authors have faid that thefe towers were as many in number as the days 

 of the year. 



(g ) Betancourt fays, that the height of the pyramid of Cholula was upwards 

 of forty ejladosy that is, more than two hundred and five Parifian feet ; but this 

 author has been too fparing in his meafure, as that height unqueftionably ex- 

 ceeds five hundred feet. 



