Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/311

Rh of Sicāltĕpēc, along the borders of the Lake of Zŭmpāngŏ, to the town of that name, and from thence, across the mountains, to Săn Jūān dĕ Tĕŏtĭhuăcān, where we passed the night. On the following morning we visited the pyramids, which lie about two miles from the Pueblo, and afterwards rested for nearly an hour in an avenue of cypresses terminated by a large church. One of these cypresses is of singular beauty: we thought it but little inferior to those of Chăpōltĕpēc.

I can add nothing to the description of the pyramids given by Humboldt, whose work contains infinitely more than is known respecting them by the natives at the present day. The first, (Tonatiuh Ytzaqual,) the House of the Sun, has a base of 682 feet in length; its height is 180 feet. The second, (Metzli Itzaqual,) the House of the Moon, is thirty-six feet lower than the other, and its base is much smaller. Both are truncated, like the pyramid of Chŏlūlă, and are of Toltec origin: they are composed of stones, and clay intermixed, and, although, the form of the exterior is now almost lost amidst the quantity of aloes, cactuses, and thorny brushwood, by which it is covered, there are parts where the steps, or terraces, which rose gradually to the summit, can be still distinctly traced.

A group, or (as Humboldt calls it) a system of little pyramids, symmetrically arranged, extends for some distance around the Houses of the Sun and Moon; and amongst them are found continually