Page:Mexico as it was and as it is.djvu/307

240 Some of the caves discovered by Father Joseph Rotéa, are described as being thirty feet in length by fifteen in breadth, and are supposed by writers to have been, perhaps, the "seven abodes" from which the Mexican tradition describes their ancestors as having issued when they began their emigration.

N of the city of Mexico, in the department of Zacatecas, (a country that is supposed to have been inhabited by the Chicimecas and Ottomies at the period of the conquest,) situated on the level of a hill top, which rises out of the plain like another Acropolis, are the extensive remains of an Indian city, known as the "R."

The northern side of the cerro rises with an easy slope from the plain, and is guarded by bastions and a double wall, while, on the other sides, the steep and precipitous rocks of the hill itself, form natural defences. The whole of this elevation is covered with ruins; but on the southern side, chiefly, may be traced the remains of temples, pyramids, and edifices for the priests, cut from the living rock, and rising to the height of from two to four hundred feet above the level of the surrounding country. These rock-built walls are sometimes joined by mortar of no great tenacity, and the stones (many of which are twenty-two feet in thickness and of a corresponding height,) are retained in their positions mainly by their own massiveness.

The opposite engraving represents the patio, or courtyard of a temple, as drawn by M. Nebel. On the back part of the square is raised the pyramid, or teocalli, on which was placed the altar and idol. The stairs behind the teocalli conduct to other temples and pyramids beyond, and served, perhaps, as seats for the spectators of the bloody rites that were celebrated by the priests.

The most satisfactory account I have seen of these ruins, is given by Captain Lyon in a volume of his travels in Mexico.

"We set out," says he, "on our expedition to the Cerro de los Edificios, u nder the guidance of an old ranchero, and soon arrived at the foot of the abrupt and steep rock on which the buildings are situated. Here we perceived two ruined heaps of stones, flanking the entrance to a causeway ninety-three feet broad, commencing at four hundred feet from the cliff.

"A space of about six acres has been inclosed by a broad wall, of which the foundations are still visible, running first to the south and afterward to the east. Off its southwestern angle stands a high mass of stones, which flanks the causeway. In outward appearance it is of a pyramidal form, owing to the quantities of stones piled against it either by design or by its own ruin; but on closer examination its figure could