89 
equal height. It appears to have been con- 
structed exactly in the direction of the four 
cardinal points ; but as the edges of the stories 
are not very distinct, it is difficult to ascertain 
their primitive direction. This pyramidal mo- 
nument has a broader basis than that of any 
other edifice of the same kind in the old con- 
tinent. I measured it carefully, and ascertained, 
that its perpendicular height is only fifty metres, 
but that each side of its basis is four hundred 
and thirty-nine metres in length. Torquemada 
computes its height at seventy-seven metres ; 
Betancourt, at sixty-five ; and Clavigero, at 
sixty-one. Bernal Diaz del Castillo, a common 
soldier in the army of Cortez, amused himself 
by counting the steps of the staircases, which 
led to the platform of the teocallis : he found 
one hundred and fourteen in the great temple of 
Tenochtitlan, one hundred and seventeen in that 
of Texcuco, and one hundred and twenty in that 
of Cholula. The basis of the pyramid of Cholu- 
la is twice as broad as that of Cheops ; but its 
height is very little more than that of the pyra- 
mid of Mycerinus. On comparing the dimensions 
of the house of the Sun, at Teotihuacan, with 
those of the pyramid of Cholula, we see, that the 
people, who constructed these remarkable monu-^ 
ments, intended to give them the same height, 
but with bases, the length of which should be 
in the proportion of one to two. We find also 
