244 MEXICO. 
torn at the inhuman sacrifices of the Aztecs.* A road or causeway, to 
be noticed in another place, terminates at the foot of this precipice, ex- 
actly beneath the cave and overhanging rock ; and conjecture can form 
no other idea of its intended utility, unless as being in some manner con- 
nected with the purposes of the dungeon. 
" Hence we ascend to a variety of buildings, all constructed with the 
same regard to strength, and inclosing spaces on far too large a scale for 
the abode of common people. On the extreme ridge of the mountain 
wei'e several tolerably perfect tanks. 
" In a subsequent visit to this extraordinary place, I saw some other 
buildings, which had at first escaped my notice. These were situated on 
the summit of a rock terminating the ridge, at about half a mile to the N. 
N.W. of the citadel. 
" The first is a building originally eighteen feet square, but having the 
addition of sloping walls to give it a pyramidal form. It is flat-topped, 
and on the centre of its southern face there have been steps by which to 
ascend to the summit. The second is a square altar, its height and base 
being each about sixteen feet. These buildings are surrounded at no 
great distance by a strong wall, and at a quarter of a mile to the north- 
ward, advantage is taken of a precipice to construct another wall of 
twelve feet in width upon its brink. On a small flat space, between 
this and the pyramid, are the remains of an open square edifice, to the 
southward of which are two long mounds of stone, each extending about 
thirty feet ; and to the northeast is another ruin, having large steps up 
its side. I should conceive the highest wall of the citadel to be three 
hundred feet above the plain, and the bare rock surmounts it by about 
thirty feet more. 
" The whole place in fact, from its isolated situation, the disposition of 
its defensive walls, and the favorable figure of the rock, must have been 
impregnable to Indians; and even European troops would have found great 
difficulty in ascending to those works, which I have ventured to name the 
Citadel. There is no doubt that the greater mass of the nation which 
once dwelt here, must have been established upon the plain beneath, since 
from the summit of the rock we could distinctly trace three straight and 
very extensive causeways, divei'ging from that over which we first passed. 
The most remarkable of these runs southwest for two miles, is forty-six 
feet in width, and, crossing the grand causeway, is continued to the foot of 
the cliff", immediately beneath the cave which I have described. Its more 
distant extreme is terminated by a high and long artificial mound, imme- 
diately beyond the river, toward the hacienda of La Quemada. We 
could trace the second, south and southwest to a small rancho named 
Coyote, about four miles distant ; and the third ran southwest by south, 
still farther, ceasing, as the country people informed us, at a moun- 
tain six miles distant. All these roads had been slightly raised, were 
* The writings of Clavigero, Solis, Bernal Diaz, and others, describe this mode of disposing of tlie bodies of 
those whose hearts had been torn out and offered to the idol. 
