File:The history of ancient Mexico - from the foundation of that empire to its destruction by the Spaniards (1832) (14596648348).jpg

Identifier: historyofancient01gord (find matches)
Title: The history of ancient Mexico : from the foundation of that empire to its destruction by the Spaniards
Year: 1832 (1830s)
Authors: Gordon, Thomas Francis, 1787-1860
Subjects: Indians of Mexico
Publisher: Philadelphia : Printed for and published by the author : and for sale by the principal booksellers in the U. States
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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following notice of these, and other re-ligious monuments of Mexico, >ve are indebtedprincipally to the labours of M. de Humboldt. XXIII. The group of pyramids of Teotihuacan,is in the Vale of Mexico, eight leagues N. E. fromthe capital, in a plain bearing the name of Micoatlw path of the dead. There are two large pyramids,one dedicated to the sun and the other to the moon;surrounded by several hundreds of smaller ones,which form right angled streets in the direction oftlie cardinal points. The greater pyramid is 181,and the lesser 144 idQi in perpendicular height.The base of the first is 693 feet in length, and itsheight is greater than the Mycerinus, and the lengthof its base nearly equal to that of the Cephren, theleast of the tlnee great pyramids at Geeza, inEgypt, around which arc three smaller ones, sym- trian statue of Charles IV. executed ))y Don Manuel Tolso, atthe expense of the vicei-oy, the mai-quis of Braiicilbilc.—Hum-boldts Kesearches, vol. 1. p. 49. English Trans.
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CH. VI. MEXICO. 201 metrically placed parallel to the fronts of the great-er. The small mounds of Teotihuacan, ^vhich arescarce 33 feet high, served according to tlie tradi-tion of the natives, as burial places for their chiefs.The great pyramids had four principal stories, withflights of steps, the edges of which may yet be dis-tinguished. The nucleus is of clay mixed withsmall stones, encased by a thick wall of Tezontlior porous amygdaloid, a construction similar to thepyramid of Sakharah in Africa. On the respectivesummits were colossal statues of stone, emblem-atical of the sun and moon, covered with gold, ofwhich they were stripped by the soldiers of Cortes.When the bisliop Zuman-aga engaged in the de-struction of the monuments of Mexican religionand history, he ordered the demolition of theseidols. The remains of the staircases, of largehewn stone, which once led to the platforms oftliese teocallis are still visible. XXIV. On the east of the plain of Teotihuacan,descending the C

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