Note 104 — Chapter XIX · Mounds and Earthworks in North and Central America.—Migrations of the Toltecs and Aztecs.—The Quichés.—Aboriginal races.—Palenque.—Hieroglyphs.—Temples.—Desertion of the Temples and stone buildings in Yucatan.—Conquest of Yucatan by the Aztecs.—Antiquity of Palenque and Uxmal.—Aztec custom of imprisoning captives in cages and sacrificing them to the gods.—Civilisation of the Toltecs.—Note upon the symbol or Totem of the Serpent.
Reading edition
According to Humboldt, the Toltecs arrived in Anáhuac (Mexico) A.D. 648, and reached Tula in 670. The pyramids of Téotihuacan, a few leagues north of the modern city of Mexico, were built by them. They afterwards raised the great pyramid of Cholula, and on its platform built a temple for the worship of Quetzalcoatl. From Cholula, colonies of the Toltecs went to Tabasco and Yucatan.
The Aztecs arrived in Mexico in 1190, and found there the pyramids which they believed to hive been the work of their predecessors the Toltecs, who had obtained a knowledge of hieroglyphics and of methods of computing time by calendars. The Aztecs founded Tenochtitlan (the city of Mexico) in 1325.