Note 546 — Chapter VIII

Bancroft’s Native Races, vol. iv, p. 533. On page 548, the same author in a note translates the following interesting passage from Sr. Garcia y Cubas: “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.” This inner smooth surface has an inclination of 47°, differing from the angle of the outer faces. Sr. Garcia y Cubas, conjectures that the Toltecs, the descendants of the civilized architects of these monuments, fearing that they would be despoiled by the savages who followed them, covered up their sacred places with the outer coatings described. See Appendix.