Note IX-89 — Chapter IX · ANTIQUITIES OF THE CENTRAL PLATEAUX. (continued 2)

Sr Antonio García y Cubas, a member of the commission whose description of Teotihuacan I have used as my chief authority, has since published an Ensayo de un Estudio comparativo entre las Pirámides Egípcias y Mexicanas, Mexico, 1871, which I have received since writing the preceding pages. He gives the same plan and view that I have used, also a plan of the Egyptian pyramids in the plain of Ghizeh, and a plate representing part of a human face in stone from Teotihuacan. The author made some additional observations subsequently to the exploration of the commission, and gives the following dimensions, which vary somewhat from those I have given, especially the height: Sun—232 by 220 by 66 mètres; summit, 18 by 32 mètres; slope, north and south 31° 3´, east and west 36°; direction, E. to W. southern side, 83° N.W.; direction, N. to S. eastern side, 7° N.E. Direction, 'road of the dead' 8° 45´ N.E.; line through centres of the two pyramids, 10° N.W. Moon—156 by 130 by 46 mètres; eastern slope, 31° 30, southern slope, 36°; summit, 6 by 6 mètres; direction, north side, 88° 30´ N.W., east side, 1° 30´ N.E. The author thinks the difference in height may result from the fact that the ground on which the pyramids stand slopes towards the south, and the altitude was taken in one case on the south, in the other on the north.

The following quotation contains the most important opinion advanced in the essay in question:—'The pyramids of Teotihuacan, as they exist to-day, are not in their primitive state. There is now a mass of loose stones, whose interstices covered with vegetable earth, have caused to spring up the multitude of plants and flowers with which the faces of the pyramids are now covered. This mass of stones differs from the plan of construction followed in the body of the monuments, and besides, the falling of these stones, which has taken place chiefly on the eastern face of the Moon, has laid bare an inclined plane perfectly smooth, which seems to be the true face of the pyramid. This isolated observation would not give so much force to my argument if it were not accompanied by the same circumstances in all the monuments.' The slope of these regular smooth surfaces of the Moon is 47°, differing from the slope of the outer surface. The same inner smooth faces the author claims to have found not only in the pyramids, but in the tlalteles, or smaller mounds. Sr García y Cubas thinks that the Toltecs, the descendants of the civilized people that built the pyramids, covered up these tombs and sanctuaries, in fear of the depredations of the savage races that came after them.

Respecting miscellaneous remains at Teotihuacan the author says, 'The river empties into Lake Tezcuco, with great freshets in the rainy season, its current becoming at such times very impetuous. Its waters have laid bare throughout an immense extent of territory, foundations of buildings and horizontal layers of a very fine mortar as hard as rock, all of which indicates the remains of an immense town, perhaps the Memphis of these regions. Throughout a great extent of territory about the pyramids, for a radius of over a league are seen the foundations of a multitude of edifices; at the banks of the river and on both sides of the roads are found the horizontal layers of lime; others of earth and mud, of tetzontli and of volcanic tufa, showing the same method of construction; on the roads between the pyramids and San Juan are distinctly seen traces of walls which cross each other at right angles.' He also found excavations which seem to have furnished the material for all the structures.

As to the chief purpose for which the ensayo was written, the author claims the following analogies between Teotihuacan and the Egyptian pyramids: 1. The site chosen is the same. 2. The structures are oriented with slight variation. 3. The line through the centres of the pyramids is in the 'astronomical meridian.' 4. The construction in grades and steps is the same. 5. In both cases the larger pyramids are dedicated to the sun. 6. The Nile has a 'valley of the dead,' as in Teotihuacan there is a 'street of the dead.' 7. Some monuments of each class have the nature of fortifications. 8. The smaller mounds are of the same nature and for the same purpose. 9. Both pyramids have a small mound joined to one of their faces. 10. The openings discovered in the Moon are also found in some Egyptian pyramids. 11. The interior arrangement of the pyramids is analogous.