Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 2.djvu/335

Rh In the north-west section of the modern town of Tezcoco, on the top of a shapeless mass of pottery, bricks, mortar and earth, which is thickly overgrown with aloes, there are several large slabs of basaltic rock, neatly squared and laid due north and south. According to the legends of the spot this is the site of one of the royal residences, and like most of the antiquities of Mexico, is connected with the name of the best known emperor, as the palace of Montezuma. When Mr. Poinsett visited Tezcoco in 1825, this heap had not been pillaged for modern architectural purposes, as much as it has been since that period. Among the ruins of the supposed palace he then found, a regularly arched and well built passage, sewer, or aqueduct, which was formed of square stones the size of bricks, cemented with the strong mortar which was so much used by the Indians in all their works. In the door of one of the rooms he noticed the remains of a "very flat arch," the stones comprising which were of prodigious size and weight. On this spot, some years ago, was found the sculptured basin, which, at the period of our visit, had been transferred to and preserved in the collection of the Ex-Condé del Peñasco in the city of Mexico.

In the southern part of Tezcoco, are the massive remains of three vast pyramids, whose forms are still remarkably perfect. They succeed each other in a direct line from north to south, and, according to our measurement, are about four hundred feet in extent, on each of their fronts, along the base line. They are built partly of burned and partly of sun dried bricks, mixed up with fragments of pottery and thick coverings of cement, through which neat canals had been