Appendix. 
2TQ 
platform of Ibis extraordinary monument** contains paore than 
9.000 square metres,! and exhibits the ruins of a small square 
edifice, which undoubtedly served for a last retreat to the 
besieged. : q f 
The table-land of La Puebia exhibits remarkable vestiges of 
ancient Mexican civilization. The fortifications of Tlaxcalian 
are of a construction posterior to that of the great pyramid of 
Gholula, a curious monument, 6f which 1 shall give a minute 
description in the historical account of my travels in the interior 
of the new continent. It is sufficient to state here, that this py* 
i’amid, on the top of which I made a great number of astrono¬ 
mical observations, consists of four stages; that in its present 
state the perpendicular elevation is only 54 metres,! and the hof 
rizontal breadth Of the base 439 metres ;§ that its sides are very 
exactly in the direction of the meridians and parallels, and that 
it is constructed (if we may judge from the perforation made a 
few years ago in the north side) of alternate strata of brick and 
clay. These data are sufficient for our recognising in the con¬ 
struction of this edifice the same model observed in the form of 
the pyramids of Teotihuacan, of which we have already spok¬ 
en. They suffice also to prove the great.analogyj| between these 
brick monuments erected by the most ancient inhabitants of Aoa~ 
huac, the temple of Belus at Babylon, and the pyramids of 
Menschich-Dashour, near Sakhara in Egypt. 
* Description be las antiguedades de Xochicalcd dedicada a los Sfe- 
nores de la Expedicion iriaritima baxo las or denes de Don Alexandra 
Maiaspina, por Don Jose Antonio Alzate, Mexico, 1791, p. X2.\ 
f 96.825 square feet. Trans, 
t 1 77 feet. Trans. 
§ 1.423 feet. Trans. 
H Zoego de Obeliscisi p. 380; Voyages de Pococke , f edition de JVauf- 
bhatel, J 1752, tom. i p. 156 and 167:;' Voyage de 'JJeho-n, 4*.o. edit. p. 8fi. 
194. and 237i Grobert Description dee Pyramides , p. 6. and 12, 
s. 1 
