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to prove their construction for astronomical purposes. This, however, we have already shown, receives little confirmation from the very complete researches of later times. The fact of their being found only to contain sarcophagi and their mouldering contents; with the grouping alongside of the largest pyramids, of so many of small dimensions, along with catacombs, notoriously constructed as places of sepulture, can hardly justify any conclusion but that the Egyptian pyramids were nothing more than royal tombs ;—an opinion still further confirmed by the great care with which the passages to the sepulchral chambers have invariably been found closed up and concealed. But such is by no means found to be the case on examining, with equal care, other structures corresponding to these Egyptian sepulchres in external form.

There are numerous pyramids of various sizes in Nubia. The Temple of Belus (the Birs Nimroud) and the Mujelibè at Babylon, have already been amply described as pyramidal buildings of large dimensions, chiefly constructed of brick. India, in like manner, furnishes examples of pyramidal buildings still standing in the neighbourhood of Benares. But next to the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, those of Spanish America are most calculated to excite attention. Like those of Babylon, the Mexican pyramids are chiefly constructed of bricks. The Great Pyramid of Cholula covers an area more than three times the base of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh; but it is built in the usual form of the Mexican pyramids, consisting of four receding platforms, each of which is subdivided into a number of small steps, and the top is left as a large open platform, so that the height of the whole is small when compared with the base. Here, however, nearly all resemblance to the pyramids of Egypt ceases, though internal chambers have been discovered in some of them, containing skeletons and having perhaps a monumental character. The

pyramids of Cholula appear to have been chiefly designed by the ancient Mexicans as pedestals for the statues of their gods. When Cortez first beheld them, a colossal statue occupied the summit of each, covered with plates of gold; but the Spaniards stripped them of their costly coverings, and broke them in pieces. Cupidity and blind superstition were the ruling passions of the conquerors, and their proceedings with these native monuments are sufficiently characteristic of their whole course of conquest and dominion. The lofty terrace of the Great Pyramid of Cholula was chosen as the site of a church, dedicated to the Lady de los Remedios, and mass is now daily celebrated in it by a priest of the Indian race, whose ancestors practised there the rites of a scarcely more idolatrous worship.

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Some of the pyramids of Mexico, though known to the natives, have only recently been discovered by Europeans, and it is a curious fact, consistent with the reverence which we have already observed them to retain for the barbarous idols of their ancestors, that they seem anxious to hide from the strangers the monuments of their forefathers. It is to be noted, however, that no such feeling appears to have been manifested towards Mr. Stephens, when he explored the ancient cities of Yucatan. “On the east of the group of the pyramids of Teotihuacan,” says Humboldt, on descending the Cordillera towards the Gulf of Mexico, in a thick forest, called Tajin, rises the pyramid of Papantla. This monument was by chance discovered scarcely thirty years ago, by some Spanish hunters; for the Indians carefully conceal from the Whites whatever was an object of ancient veneration. The form of this teocalli, which had six, perhaps seven stories, is more tapering than that of any other monument of this kind: it is nearly eighteen metres in height, while the breadth of its basis is only twenty-five, and consequently about half as high as the pyramid of Caius Cestius at

Rome, which is thirty-three metres. This small edifice is built entirely with hewn stones, of an extraordinary size, and very beautifully and regularly shaped. Three staircases lead to the top. The covering of its steps is decorated with hieroglyphical sculpture, and small niches, which are arranged with great symmetry. The number of these niches seems to allude to the three hundred and eighteen simple and compound signs of the days of the Cempohualilhuitl, or civil calendar of the Toltecks.

"The greatest, most ancient, and most celebrated of the whole of the pyramidal monuments of Anahuac is the teocalli of Cholula. It is called in the present day the Mountain made by the hand of Man (monte hecho a manos). At a distance it has the aspect of a natural hill covered with vegetation.

"A vast plain, the Puebla, is separated from the valley of Mexico by the chain of volcanic mountains which ex tend from Popocatepetl towards Rio Frio, and the peak of Telapon. This plain, fertile though destitute of trees, is rich in memorials interesting to Mexican history. On it flourished the capitals of the three republics of Tlascalla, Huexocingo, and Cholula, which, notwithstanding their continual dissensions, resisted with no less firmness the despotism and usurping spirit of the Aztec kings.

"The small city of Cholula, which Cortez, in his Letters to Charles V., compares with the most populous cities of Spain, contains at present scarcely sixteen thousand inhabitants. The pyramid is to the east of the city, on the road which leads from Cholula to Puebla. It is well preserved on the western side, which is that represented in the engraving. The plain of Cholula presents that aspect of barrenness, which is peculiar to plains elevated two thousand two hundred metres above the level of the ocean. A few plants of the agave and dracæna rise on the foreground, and at a distance the summit of the volcano of Orizaba is beheld covered with snow; a colossal moun

tain, five thousand two hundred and ninety-five metres of absolute height. A sketch of it is published in Humbolt's Mexican Atlas.

"The teocalli of Cholula has four storeys, all of equal height. It appears to have been constructed exactly in the direction of the four cardinal points; but as the edges of the storys are not very distinct, it is difficult to ascertain their primitive direction. This pyramidal monument has a broader basis than that of any other edifice of the same kind in the old continent. I measured it carefully, and ascertained that its perpendicular height is only fifty metres, but that each side of its basis is four hundred and thirty-nine metres in length. Torquemada computes its height at seventy-seven metres; Betancourt, at sixtyfive; and Clavigero, at sixty-one. Bernal Diaz del Castillo, a common soldier in the army of Cortez, amused himself by counting the steps of the staircases, which led to the platform of the teocallis: he found one hundred and fourteen in the great temple of Tenochtitlan, one hundred and seventeen in that of Tezcuco, and one hundred and twenty in that of Cholula. The basis of the pyramid of Cholula is twice as broad as that of Cheops; but its height is very little more than that of the pyramid of Mycerinus. On comparing the dimensions of the house of the Sun, at Teotihuacan, with those of the pyramid of Cholula, we see, that the people, who constructed these remarkable monuments, intended to give them the same height, but with bases, the length of which should be in the proportion of one to two. We find also a considerable difference in the proportions between the base and the height in these various monuments. The pyramid of Cholula is built with unbaked bricks, alternating with layers of clay. I have been assured by some Indians of Cholula, that the inside is hollow; and that, during the abode of Cortez in this city, their ancestors had concealed, in the body of the pyramid, a considerable number of

warriors, who were to fall suddenly on the Spaniards: but the materials with which the teocalli is built, and the silence of the historians of those times, give but little probability to this assertion.

"It is certain, however, that in the interior of this pyramid, as in other teocallis, there are considerable cavities, which were used as sepulchres for the natives. A particular circumstance led to this discovery. Seven or eight years ago the road from Puebla to Mexico, which before passed to the north of the pyramid, was changed. In tracing the road, the first story was cut through, so that an eighth part remained isolated like a heap of bricks. In making this opening a square house was discovered in the interior of the pyramid, built of stone, and supported by beams made of the wood of the deciduous cypress. The house contained two skeletons, idols in basalt, and a great number of vases, curiously varnished aud painted. No pains were taken to preserve these objects, but it is said to have been carefully ascertained, that this house, covered with bricks and strata of clay, had no outlet. Supposing that the pyramid was built, not by the Toltecks, the first inhabitants of Cholula, but by prisoners made by the Cholulans from the neighbouring nations, it is possible, that they were the carcases of some unfortunate slaves, who had been shut up to perish in the interior of the teocalli. We examined the remains of this subterraneous house, and observed a particular arrangement of the bricks, tending to diminish the pressure made on the roof. The natives being ignorant of the manner of making arches, placed very large bricks horizontally, so that the upper course should pass beyond the lower. The continuation of this kind of stepwork served in some measure as a substitute for the Gothic vault, and similar vestiges have been found in several Egyptian edifices. An adit dug through the teocalli of Cholula, to examine its internal structure, would be an interesting operation;

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