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84 
and to Huitzilopochtli^ the god of war. It was 
built by the Aztecks, on the model of the pyra-- 
mids of Teotihuacan, six years only before the 
discovery of America by Christopher Columbus^ 
This truncated pyramid, called by Cortez the 
principal temple, was ninety-seven metres m 
breadth at its basis, and nearly fifty-four metres 
in height. It is not astonishing, that a building 
of these dimensions should have been destroyed 
a few years after the siege of Mexico. In 
Egypt there scarcely remains any vestiges of 
the enormous pyramids, which towered amidst 
the waters of the lake Moeris, and which Hero- 
dotus says were ornamented with colossal statues. 
The pyramids of Porsenna, of which the de-^ 
scription seems somewhat fabulous, and four of 
which, according to Varro, were more than 
eighty meti'es in height, have equally disappeared 
in Etruria 
But if the European conquerors overthrew 
the teocallis of the Aztecks, they did not alike 
succeed in destroying more ancient monuments, 
that are attributed to the Tolteck nation. We 
shall give a succinct description of these monu- 
ments, remarkable for their form and magni- 
tude. 
The group of the pyramids of Teotihuacan is 
in the valley of Mexico, eight leagues north- 
^ Plin. xxxvi, 19. 
