APPENDIX. 
2 7,1 
fiixqui) opened the chest of the human victims. We know that 
the obsidian (itztli) Was the object of the great mining under¬ 
takings, of which we still see the traces in an innumerable quan¬ 
tity of pits between the mines of Moran and the village Atoto- 
nilco el Grande, in the porphyry mountains of Oyamei and the 
Jacal, a region called by the Spaniards the mountain of knives, 
el Cerro de las Navajas.* 
It would be undoubtedly desirable to have the question re* 
solved, whether these curious edifices, of which the one, (the 
Tonatiuh Ytzaqual•>) according to the accurate measurement 
of my friend M- Oteyza, has a mass of 128.970 cubic toises,t 
were entirely constructed by the hand of man, or Whether the 
Touitecs took advantage of some natural hill which they cover¬ 
ed over with stone and lime. This very question has been re¬ 
cently agitated with respect to several pyramids of Giza and 
Sacara; and it has become doubly interesting from the fantas¬ 
tical hypotheses which M. Witte has thrown out as to the ori¬ 
gin of the monuments of colossal form in Egypt, Persepolis, 
and Palmyra. As neither the pyramids of Teotihuacan, nor that 
Qholula, of which we shall afterwards have occasion to speak, 
have been diametrically pierced, it is impossible to speak with 
certainty of their interior structure. The Indian traditions, from 
which they are believed to be hollow, are vague and contradic¬ 
tory. Their situation in plains where no other hill is to be found, 
renders it extremely probable that no natural rock serves for a 
kernel to these monuments. What is also very remarkable 
(especially if we call to mind the assertions of Pococke, as to the 
symmetrical position of the lesser pyramids of Egypt) is, that 
around the houses of the sun and moon of Teotithuacan we find 
a group, I may say a system of pyramids, of scarcely nine or ten 
metres of elevation.| These monuments, of which there are 
* I found the height of the summit of the Jacal 3 124 metres 
(10.248 feet;) and la Roccade las Ventanas at the foot of the Cerro de 
las Navajas, 2.590 metres (8.496 feet) above the level of the sea. 
f 33.743.201 cubic feet. Trans * 
4 29 or 32 feet. TrccnS. 
