PYRAMIDS OF TEOTIHUACAN. - 223 
ving will give you an accurate idea of their position and present appear- 
ance from this point. 
After we passed through the village, the high-road was soon lost among 
paths leading between the walled fields of Indian farmers. At short dis- 
tances, as we advanced in the direction of the pyramids, I observed evi- 
dent traces of a well made ancient road, covered with several inches of 
a close and hard cement, which, in turn, was often overlaid with a foot or 
two of soil. We crossed the plain, and, in a quarter of an hour, stood 
at the foot of the Tonatiuh Ytzagual, or, " House of the Sun," the base 
line of which is six hundred and eighty-two feet, and the perpendicular 
height, two hundred and twenty-one.* 
There is no other description of these monuments to be given than by 
saying that they are pyramids, three stories or stages of which are yet dis- 
tinctly visible. The whole of their exteriors is covered with a thick 
growth of nopals or prickly pears ; and, in many places, I discovered 
the remains of the coating of cement with which they were incrusted in 
the days of their perfection. A short distance, northwestwardly, from 
the " House of the Sun," is the Metzli Yl.zagual, or" House of the Moon," 
with a height of one hundred and forty-four feet. On the level summits 
of both of these, there were erected, no doubt, the shrines of the gods 
and the places of sacrifice. 
I ascended, clambering among the bushes and loose stones with uncer- 
tain footing, to the top of the "House of the Sun." The view from it was 
exceedingly picturesque over the cultivated fields to the east and south. 
Immediately to the south were a number of mound-like clusters, run- 
ning toward a number of elevations arranged in a square, beyond the 
streamlet of Teotihuacan, and bordering the road that leads to Otumba. 
On the western front there were also five or six tumuli extending toward 
a long line of similar mounds, running from the southern side of the 
" House of the Moon." These lines were quite distinct, and the whole 
plain was more or less covered with heaps of stones. It is extremely 
probable, that at one time they all formed the sepulchres of the distin- 
guished men of the Empire, and constituted the Micoatl or " Path of the 
Dead" — a name which they bore in the ancient language of the country. 
It was perhaps the Westminster Abbey of the Toltecs and Aztecs. 
You will, however, obtain a much better idea of the arrangement of 
thes© pyramids and smaller tumuli by reference to the opposite plan, 
made some years since by a scientific friend of mine, and compared by 
me with the remaining ruins on the spot, in 1842. 
An examinatipn of the "House of the Moon," or lesser pyramid, af- 
fords no more information to the inquirer than the " House of the Sun." 
Like its neighbor, it is a mass of stones, jocks and cement ; but, within a 
few years past, an entrance has been discovered between the second and 
third terraces, leading through a narrow passage, that may be traversed 
on hands and knees on an inclined plane for about twenty-five feet, to 
♦Glninie. 
