262 
AZTECK BAS-RELIEF, 
FOUND IN THE 
GREAT SQUARE OF MEXICO. 
PLATE XXI. 
The cathedral of Mexico, represented in the 
third plate, is built on the ruins of the teocalU, or 
house of the God Mexitli. This pyramidal mo- 
nument, constructed by king Ahuizotl, in 1486, 
was thirty-seven metres high from its basis to 
the upper platform, whence there is an extensive 
view over the lakes, the surrounding country 
strown with villages, and the mountains that 
skirt the valley. The platform, which served as 
an asylum in battle, was crowned by two chapels 
in the form of towers, each of which was seven- 
teen or eighteen metres, so that the whole teo- 
calli was fifty-four metres high. The heap of 
stones, that formed the pyramid of Mexitli, was 
used after the siege of Tenochtitlan, to raise the 
Plaza Mayor, In digging eight or ten metres 
deep, a great number of colossal idols, and other 
