RUINS OF T U S A P A N. 247 
The stone, represented in the cut, is twenty-one feet long and of compact 
granite ; its carving is oddly different from anything else we have seen 
among Mexican antiquities, and it is supposed, by Nebel, to have formed 
part of an edifice. He caused an excavation to be made by the Indians in 
front of this fragment, and, at a short distance below the surface, struck 
upon a road formed of irregular stones, not unlike the ancient pavements 
in the neighborhood of Rome. The picturesque traveller (whose book, 1 
regret, is too large and expensive for republication in our country,) ex- 
ceedingly regrets that he was unable to prosecute his inquiries and exam- 
inations in this neighborhood. He was alone, and unaided in the forests, 
except by a few idle and ignorant Indians ; yet he has presented his 
readers with a drawing of this curious fragment, as the sign of a civili- 
zation that once reigned in a country which was hitherto imagined to have 
been inhabited alone by wild beasts and reptiles. 
TUSAPAN. 
We have now advanced, in the course of this examination, into the 
tierra caliente, near the eastern coast of Mexico. Fifteen leagues west 
from Papantla, lie the remains of Tusapan, supposed to have been a city 
of the Totonacos. They are situated in the lap of a small plain at the 
foot of the Cordillera, and are relics of a town of but limited extent. 
Of all these, however, nothing remains in great distinctness but the pyr- 
amidal monument, or Teocalli, of which the opposite drawing is given by 
Nebel. 
This edifice has a base line of thirty feet on every side, and is built of 
irregular stones. A single stairway leads to the upper part of the first 
story, on which is erected a quadrangular house or tower, — while, in 
front of the door, still stands the pedestal of the idol, though- all traces 
of the figure itself are gone. The interior of this apartment is twelve feet 
square, and the roof terminates in a point like the exterior. The walls 
have evidently been painted, but the outlines of the figures are no longer 
distinguishable. 
The door and the two friezes are formed of sculptured stones ; but it is 
evident from the fragments of carving, and a variety of figures of men 
and animals that lie in heaps about the rest of the city, that this temple 
was, in point of adornment, by no means the most splendid edifice of 
Tusapan. 
Nebel has also presented us with a drawing of the following sino-ular 
monument, which he found among the ruins of this ancient city. 
