85 
east from the capital^ in a plain that bears the 
name of Micoatl, or the Path of the Dead, 
There are two large pyramids dedicated to the 
8un (Tonatiuh), and to the Moon (Meztli) ; 
and these are surrounded by several hundreds of 
small pyramids^ which form streets in exact 
lines from north to souths and from east to west. 
Of these two great teocallis^ one is fifty-five, the 
other forty-four metres in perpendicular height. 
The basis of the first is two hundred and eight 
metres in length; whence it results, that the 
Tonatiuh Yztaqual, according to Mr. Oteyza’s 
measurement, made in 1803, is higher than the 
Mycerinus, or third of the three great pyramids 
of Geeza in Egypt, and the length of its base 
nearly equal to that of the Cephren. The small 
pyramids, which surround the great houses of 
the Sun and the Moon, are scarcely nine or ten 
metres high ; and served, according to the tra- 
dition of the natives, as burial places for the 
chiefs of the tribes. Around the Cheops and 
the Mycerinus in Egypt, there are eight small 
pyramids, placed with symmetry, and parallel 
to the fronts of the greater. The two teocallis of 
Teotihuacan had four principal stories, each of 
which was subdivided into steps, the edges of 
which are still to be distinguished. The 
nucleus is fcomposed of clay mixed with small 
stones, and it is encased by a thick wall of te- 
