Part 2

=The sides and back of the Teocalli= were in the form of great steps.

CORTÉS says that there were 3 or 4 ledges or passages one pace wide. BERNAL DÍAZ—5 recesses (concavidades).

Both the pictures show four ledges.

The Anonymous Conqueror gives the width of the ledges as two paces.

The height of the wall between each ledge is given as follows:—

CORTÉS—the height of three men = say 16′. ANONIMO—the height of two men = say 10′ 8″. MOTOLINIA—1½ to 2 Brazas = say 11′.

The size of the platform on the top of the Teocalli cannot be decided from the written records. Torquemada says that there was ample room for the Priests of the Idols to carry out their functions unimpeded and thoroughly, yet in an earlier paragraph he appears to limit the width to a little more than seventy feet. Possibly this measurement of seventy feet is meant to apply to a forecourt of the two sanctuaries.

Motolinia gives the measurement of the base of the Teocalli at Tenayoca as 222½′ × 222½′ (English), and the summit platform as about 192′ × 192′ (English). Applying the same proportion to a Teocalli measuring 300′ × 300′ at the base, the summit platform would measure about 259′ × 259′.

Duran says “in front of the two chambers where these Gods (Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc) stood there was a Patio forty feet square cemented over and very smooth, in the middle of which and fronting the two chambers was a somewhat sharp pointed green stone about waist high, of such a height that when a man was thrown on his back on the top of it his body would bend back over it. On this stone they sacrificed men in the way we shall see in another place.”

Ixtlilxochitl gives a similar description but, says the sacrificial stone was on one side towards (hacia) the doorway of the larger chamber of Huitzilopochtli.

=The Oratories of Huitzilopochtli= and =Thaloc=.

Motolinia, Torquemada, Ixtlilxochitl, and Gomara agree in placing the two oratories or shrines on the extreme eastern edge of the platform, so that there was only just room for a man to pass round them on the east side. The two oratories were separate one from the other, each being enclosed within its own walls with a doorway towards the west. The oratory of Huitzilopochtli was the larger of the two and stood to the south. The oratory of Tlaloc stood to the north. No measurements are given of the area covered by these two oratories, but there is no suggestion that they were large buildings[7] except in height. The roof and probably the upper stages were made of wood (Torquemada), and we know that they were burnt during the siege.

HEIGHT:—

ANONIMO—“Ten or twelve men’s bodies.” TORQUEMADA—“Each in three stories, each story of great height.” MOTOLINIA—“The Great Temples had three stories above the altars, all terraced and of considerable height.”

Ixtlilxochitl gives the height of the great Teocalli as over twenty-seven brazas (150′). If this means the height from the ground to the top of the Oratory of Huitzilopochtli it would very nearly agree with the height given on the hypothetical section on Plate B.

In the description of the map of the city published in 1524 [see ‘Conquest of New Spain,’ vol. iii. (Hakluyt Society)] I called attention to the “full human face probably representing the Sun” between the Oratories of the Teocalli of Huitzilopochtli. The map is, I believe, in error in placing the Teocalli on the west side of the Temple Enclosure, but that the full human face is intended to represent the sun is confirmed by the following passage from Motolinia[8]:—

“Tlacaxipenalistli.—This festival takes place when the sun stood in the middle of Huichilobos, _which was at the Equinox_, and because it was a little out of the straight[9] Montezuma wished to pull it down and set it right.”

The map of 1524 was probably drawn from a description given by one of the Conquistadores, and if we turn to the pages of Gomara, an author who was never in Mexico and who wrote only from hearsay, it is easy to see how such a mistake in orientation arose.

GOMARA, Historia General de las Indias—Conquista de Mejico. (El Templo de Mejico.)

“This temple occupies a square, from corner to corner the length of a crossbow shot. The stone wall has four gateways corresponding to the four principal streets.... In the middle of this space is an edifice of earth and massive stone four square like the court, and of the breadth of fifty fathoms from corner to corner. On the west side there are no terraces but 113 or 114 steps leading up to the top. _All the people of the city[10] look and pray towards the sunrise_ and on this account they build their large temples in this manner.... In addition to this tower with its chapels placed on the top of the pyramid, there were forty or more other towers great and small on other smaller Teocallis standing in the same enclosure (circuito) as this great one, and although they were of the same form, _they did not look to the east_ but to other parts of the heaven, to differentiate them from the Great Temple. Some were larger than others, and each one (dedicated) to a different god.”

The confusion of thought between a temple that faced the east and a temple where the worshippers faced the east is evident.

There can be little doubt that the steps of the Great Teocalli were on the west side, that the Oratories of Huitzilopochtli and Taloc were on the east side of the summit platform, and that their doorways faced the west. _The priest and worshippers faced the east to watch the sunrise at the equinox in the narrow space between the two oratories_, and because the alignment was not quite correct Montezuma wished to pull down the oratories and rebuild them.

Following from this, it appears to me that Duran was probably not far from correct in placing the great green sacrificial stone “fronting the _two_ chambers,” but that Ixtlilxochitl was still more accurate in placing it towards (hacia) the doorway of the sanctuary of Huitzilopochtli. The heart of the human victim would be torn out and held up to the rising sun from the spot where the priest stood to observe the sunrise.

It will at once be urged against this solution of the difficulties attending the orientation of the Great Teocalli that the plan and tracings locate the Teocalli eight degrees from the east and west line, and that, therefore, my explanation fails. To this I can only reply that I plotted the measurements, taking the east and west line of the Calle de Tacuba from the modern map as a datum, and this may vary slightly from the ancient line of the street. Then I have observed in Maya temples that sometimes the shrines stand slightly askew from the base: this is clearly noticeable at Chichén Itzá. If the error of 8° were divided between the lines of the Temple enclosure, the base of the Teocalli, and the sides of the oratories, the difference would not easily be perceptible.

Moreover, we cannot now ascertain the exact spot from which the observation was made nor the distance between the two sanctuaries. If, as Ixtlilxochitl states, it was towards the doorway of the sanctuary of Huitzilopochtli and not between the two sanctuaries as is stated by Duran, then the error would be reduced.

RECENT EXCAVATIONS.

We have now to consider the position of the Great Teocalli in relation to the excavations made in the Calle de las Escallerillas when pipes were being laid for the drainage of the city in the year 1900. These excavations were watched on behalf of the Government by Señor Don Leopoldo Batres, Inspector General of Archæological Monuments, who published an account of his researches in 1902, with a plan showing the position and depth below the surface at which objects of archæological interest were discovered. Unfortunately Señor Batres was already fully convinced that the Great Teocalli faced the south and occupied more or less the position of the present Cathedral.

At a spot marked _a_, in Tracing A_{2}, 38 metres from the east end of the Escalerillas, Señor Batres discovered a stairway of four masonry steps which he states measured each 29 cm. in the rise and 22 cm. in the tread, but unfortunately beyond this statement he gives no information whatever regarding them. However, I presume that the steps followed the same direction as a stairway of nine steps which he had previously described and which will be alluded to immediately. _These three steps I have taken to be the central stairway leading to the forecourt or apetlac of the Great Teocalli._

Señor Batres had already noted a stairway of nine steps, marked _b_ in Tracing A_{2}, each measuring 22 cm. in rise and 26 cm. in tread. This stairway was 2 metres wide and faced the west. The stairway was apparently joined at one or both sides to a sloping wall[11]. Embedded in the débris which covered these steps was found an idol of green stone measuring 75 cms. in height and 61 cms. in diameter. The idol is now preserved in the National Museum.

I take the foot of this stairway of nine steps to have been in line with the great stairway of the Teocalli, and it may have been part of the great stairway itself; however, a stairway only two metres wide is not likely to be the beginning of what must have been the principal approach to the Teocalli, and I can only suggest that it may have been a stairway leading to a niche which held the idol of green stone and that the great stairways passed on either side of it. An idol in a somewhat similar position can be seen on the Hieroglyphic Stairway at Copan.

THE ANONYMOUS CONQUEROR. A Description written by a Companion of Hernando Cortés.

XIV. _What these Towers are like._

They build a square tower one hundred and fifty paces, or rather more, in length, and one hundred and fifteen or one hundred in breadth. The foundation of this building is solid; when it reaches the height of two men, a passage is left two paces wide on three sides, and on one of the long sides steps are made until the height of two more men is reached, and the edifice is throughout solidly built of masonry. Here, again, on three sides they leave the passage two paces wide, and on the other side they build the steps, and in this way it rises to such a height that the steps total one hundred and twenty or one hundred and thirty.

There is a fair-sized plaza on the top and from the middle [of it] arise two other towers which reach the height of ten or twelve men’s bodies and these have windows above. Within these tall towers stand the Idols in regular order and well adorned, and the whole house highly decorated. No one but their high priest was allowed to enter where the principal God was kept, and this god had distinct names in different provinces; for in the great city of Mexico he was called Horchilobos (Huitzilopochtli), and in another city named Chuennila (Cholula) he was called Quecadquaal (Quetzalcoatl), and so on in the others.

Whenever they celebrated the festivals of their Idols, they sacrificed many men and women, boys and girls; and when they suffered some privation, such as drought or excess of rain, or found themselves hard pressed by their enemies, or suffered any other calamity, then they made these sacrifices in the following manner....

XXI. _About their Temples and Mosques._

They have in this great city very great mosques or temples in which they worship and offer sacrifices to their Idols; but the Chief Mosque was a marvellous thing to behold, it was as large as a city. It was surrounded by a high masonry wall and had four principal doorways.

FRAY TORIBIO BENAVENTE or MOTOLINIA, Historia de los Indios de Nueva España, Treatise No. I. Ch. XII.

There have never been seen or heard of before such temples as those of this land of Anahuac or New Spain, neither for size and design nor for anything else; and as they rise to a great height they must needs have strong foundations; and there was an endless number of such temples and altars in this country, about which a note is here made so that those who may come to this country from now onwards may know about them, for the memory of them all has already almost perished.

These temples are called Teocallis, and throughout the land we find that in the principal part of the town a great rectangular court is constructed; in the large towns they measured from corner to corner the length of a crossbow shot, in the lesser towns the courts are smaller.

This courtyard they surround with a wall and many of the walls are embattled; their gateways dominate the principal streets and roads, for they are all made to converge towards the court; and so as to give greater honour to their temples they lay out the roads very straight with rope line for a distance of one or two leagues, and it is a thing worth seeing from the top of the principal temple, how straight all the roads come from all the lesser towns and suburbs and converge towards the Court of the Teocallis.

In the most conspicuous place in this court would stand a great rectangular block (cepa). So as to write this description I measured one in a moderate-sized town named Tenanyocan [Tenayoca] and found that it measured forty fathoms from corner to corner all built up with a solid wall, on the outside the wall was of stone, and the inside was filled up with stone only or with clay and adobe; others were built of earth well tamped.

As the structure rose it contracted towards the centre and at the height of a fathom and a half or two fathoms there were some ledges going inwards, for they did not build it in a straight line, and the thick foundation was always worked towards the centre so as to give it strength and as the wall rose it got narrower; so that when it got to the top of the Teocalli it had narrowed and contracted itself seven or eight fathoms on each side, both by the ledges and the wall leaving the foundation [mound] on the top thirty-four or thirty-five fathoms.

_On the west side were the steps and ascent_, and above on the top they constructed two great altars, placing them towards the east side, so that there was no more space left behind them than was sufficient to enable one to walk round them. One altar was to the right and the other to the left. Each one stood by itself with its own walls and hood-like roof. In the great Teocallis there were two altars, in the others only one, and each one of these altars[12] had upper stories; the great ones had three stories above the altars, all terraced and of considerable height, and the building (cepa) itself was very lofty, so that it could be seen from afar off.

One could walk round each of these chapels and each had its separate walls. In front of these altars a large space was left where they made their sacrifices, and the building (cepa) itself had the height of a great tower, without [counting] the stories that covered the altars.

According to what some people who saw it have told me, the Teocalli of Mexico had more than a hundred steps; I have seen them myself and have counted them more than once, but I do not remember [the number]. The Teocalli of Texcoco had five or six steps more than that of Mexico. If one were to ascend to the top of the chapel of San Francisco in Mexico, which has an arched roof and is of considerable height, and look over Mexico, the temple of the devil would have a great advantage in height, and it was a wonderful sight to view from it the whole of Mexico and the towns in the neighbourhood.

In similar courts in the principal towns there were twelve or fifteen other Teocallis of considerable size, some larger than others, but far from as large as the principal Teocalli.

Some of them had their fronts and steps towards others[13], others to the East, again others to the South, but none of them had more than one altar with its chapel, and each one had its halls and apartments where the Tlamacazques or Ministers dwelt, who were numerous, and those who were employed to bring water and firewood, for in front of each altar there were braziers which burnt all night long, and in the halls also there were fires. All these Teocallis were very white, burnished and clean, and in some of them [the temple enclosures] were small gardens with trees and flowers.

There was in almost all these large courts another temple, which, after its square foundation had been raised and the altar built, was enclosed with a high circular wall and covered with its dome. This was [the temple] of the God of the Air, who was said to have his principal seat in Cholula, and in all this province there were many of them.

This God of the Air they called in their language Quetzalcoatl, and they said that he was the son of that God of the great statue and a native of Tollan [Tula], and thence he had gone out to instruct certain provinces whence he disappeared, and they still hoped that he would return. When the ships of the Marqués del Valle, Don Hernando Cortés (who conquered this New Spain), appeared, when they saw them approaching from afar off under sail, they said that at last their God was coming, and on account of the tall white sails they said that he was bringing Teocallis across the sea. However, when they [the Spaniards] afterwards disembarked, they said it was not their God, but that they were many Gods.

The Devil was not contented with the Teocallis already described, but in every town and in each suburb, at a quarter of a league apart, they had other small courts where there were three or four small Teocallis, in some of them more, and in others only one, and on every rock or hillock one or two, and along the roads and among the maize fields there were many other small ones, and all of them were covered with plaster and white, so that they showed up and bulked large, and in the thickly peopled country it appeared as though it was all full of houses, especially of the Courts of the Devil, which were wonderful to behold, and there was much to be seen when one entered into them, and the most important, above all others, were those of Texcoco and Mexico.

SAHAGUN, FR. BERNADINO DE (Bustmamante Edition), p. 194. Report of the Mexicans about their God Vitzilopuchtli. [Huitzilopochtli, Huichilobos.]

The Mexicans celebrate three festivals to Vitzilopuchtli every year, the first of them in the month named Panquetzaliztli. During this festival [dedicated] to him and others, named Tlacavepancuexcotzin, they ascend to the top of the Cue, and they make life-size images out of tzoalli: when these are completed, all the youths of Telpuchcalli carry them on their hands to the top of the Cue. They make a statue of Vitzilopuchtli in the district [barrio] named Itepeioc[A]. The statue of Tlacavepancuexcotzin was made in that of Vitznaoao[14]. They first prepare the dough and afterwards pass all the night in making the statues of it.

After making the images of the dough, they worshipped them as soon as it was dawn and made offerings to them during the greater part of the day, and towards evening they began ceremonies and dances with which they carried them to the Cue, and at sunset they ascended to the top of it.

After the images were placed in position, they all came down again at once, except the guardians [named] Yiopuch.

As soon as dawn came the God named Paynal, who was the Vicar of Vitzilopuchtli, came down from the lofty Cu, and one of the priests, clad in the rich vestments of Quetzalcoatl, carried this God (Vitzilopuchtli) in his hands, as in a procession, and the image of Paynal (which was carved in wood and, as has already been stated, was richly adorned) was also brought down.

In this latter festival there went in front of [the image] a mace-bearer, who carried on his shoulder a sceptre in the shape of a huge snake, covered all over with a mosaic of turquoise.

When the Chieftain arrived with the image at a place named Teutlachco, which is the game of Ball [that is at the Tlachtli court], which is inside the Temple courtyard, they killed two slaves in front of him, who were the images [representatives] of the Gods named Amapantzitzin, and many other captives. There the procession started and went direct to Tlaltelulco.

Many Chieftains and people came out to receive it, and they burned incense to them [the images] and decapitated many quails before them.

Thence they went directly to a place named Popotla, which is near to Tacuba, where now the church of S. Esteban stands, and they gave it another reception like that mentioned above. They carried in front of the procession all the way a banner made of paper like a fly-whisk, all full of holes, and in the holes bunches of feathers, in the same way as a cross is carried in front of a procession. Thence they came direct to the Cu of Vitzilopuchtli, and with the banner they performed another ceremony as above stated in this festival.

Account of the Buildings of the Great Temple of Mexico.

The court of this Temple was very large, almost two hundred fathoms square; it was all paved, and had within it many buildings and towers. Some of these were more lofty than others, and each one of them was dedicated to a God.

The principal tower of all was in the middle and was higher than the others, and was dedicated to the God Vitzilopuchtli Tlacavepancuexcotzin.

This tower was divided in the upper part, so that it looked like two, and had two chapels or altars on the top, each one covered by its dome (chapitel) and each one of them had on the summit its particular badges or devices. In the principal one of them was the statue of Vitzilopuchtli, also called Ilhuicatlxoxouhqui, and in the other the image of the God Tlaloc. Before each one of these was a round stone like a chopping-block, which they call Texcatl, where they killed those whom they sacrificed in honour of that God, and from the stone towards the ground below was a pool of blood from those killed on it; and so it was on all the other towers; _these faced the West_, and one ascended by very narrow straight steps to all these towers.

(Sahagun mentions seventy-eight edifices in connection with the Great Temple, but it is almost certain that these were not all within the Temple enclosure.)

SAHAGUN, Hist. de la Conquista, Book 12, Ch. XXII.

They [the Mexicans] ascended a Cu, the one that was nearest to the royal houses [_i. e._ of Axayacatl], and they carried up there two stout beams so as to hurl them from that place on to the royal houses and beat them down so as to force an entry. When the Spaniards observed this they promptly ascended the Cu in regular formation, carrying their muskets and crossbows, and they began the ascent very slowly, and shot with their crossbows and muskets at those above them, a musketeer accompanying each file and then a soldier with sword and shield, and then a halberdier: in this order they continued to ascend the Cu, and those above hurled the timbers down the steps, but they did no damage to the Spaniards, who reached the summit of the Cu and began to wound and kill those who were stationed on the top, and many of them flung themselves down from the Cu: finally, all those [Mexicans] who had ascended the Cu perished.

HERNANDO CORTÉS, 2nd Letter. (The attack on the Great Teocalli.)

We fought from morning until noon, when we returned with the utmost sadness to our fortress. On account of this they [the enemy] gained such courage that they came almost up to the doors, and they took possession of the great Mosque[15], and about five hundred Indians, who appeared to me to be persons of distinction, ascended the principal and most lofty tower, and took up there a great store of bread and water and other things to eat, and nearly all of them had very long lances with flint heads, broader than ours and no less sharp.