Chapter II: Part 2

Each of these chapels had three stories one above the other, and each story or stage was of great height, so that each one of them [of the chapels] if set on the ground (not on that tower, but on the ground level whence the edifice sprang) would have made a very lofty and sumptuous building, and for this reason the whole fabric of the Temple was so lofty that its height compelled admiration. To behold, from the summit of this temple, the city and its surroundings, with the lakes and all the towns and cities that were built in it and on its banks, was a matter of great pleasure and contentment.

On the West side this building had no stages [contractions], but steps by which one ascended to the level of the chapels, and the said steps had a rise of one foot or more. The steps, or stairs, of this famous temple numbered one hundred and thirteen, and all were of very well dressed stone.

From the last step at the summit of this Temple to the Altars and entrance to the Chapels was a considerable space of ground, so that the priests and ministers of the Idols could carry out their functions unimpeded and thoroughly.

On each of the two altars stood an Idol of great bulk, each one representing the greatest God they possessed, which was Huitzilupuchtli or by his other name Mexitli.

Near and around this Great Temple there were more than forty lesser ones, each one of them dedicated and erected to a God, and its tower and shape narrowed up to the floor on which the Chapel and altar began to arise, and it was not as large as the Great Temple, nor did it approach it by far in size, and all these lesser Temples and towers were associated with the Great Temple and tower which there was in this City.

The difference between the Great Temple and the lesser ones was not in the form and structure, for all were the same, but they differed in site and position [orientation], for the Great Temple had its back to the East, which is the practice the large temples ought to follow, as we have noticed that the ancients assert, and their steps and entrance to the West (as we are accustomed to place many of our Christian Churches), so that they paid reverence in the direction of the sun as it rose, the smaller temples looked in the other direction towards the East and to other parts of the heaven [that is to] the North and South.

* * * * *

In order that my readers may not think that I speak heedlessly, and without a limit to my figures, I wish to quote here the words of Padre Fray Bernadino de Sahagun, a friar of my Order and one of those who joined very early in the discovery of this New Spain in the year twenty-nine [1529], who saw this and the other temples.... He says these words:—“This Temple was enclosed on all sides by stone walls half as high again as a man, all embattled and whitened. The ground of this Temple was all paved, with very smooth flag stones (not dressed but natural) as smooth and slippery as ice. There was much to be seen in the buildings of this Temple; I made a picture of it in this City of Mexico, and they took it to Spain for me, as a thing well worth beholding, and I could not regain possession of it, nor paint it again, and although in the painting it looks so fine, it was in reality much more so, and the building was more beautiful. The principal shrine or chapel which it possessed was dedicated to the God Huitzilupuchtli, and to another God his companion named Tlacahuepancuezcotzin, and to another, of less importance than the two, called Paynalton....”

And he adds more, saying “the square was of such great circumference that it included and contained within its area all the ground where the Cathedral, the houses of the Marques del Valle[A], the Royal houses[16] and the houses of the Archbishop have now been built, and a great part of what is now the market place,” which seems incredible, so great is the said area and space of ground.

I remember to have seen, thirty-five years ago, a part of these buildings in the Plaza, on the side of the Cathedral, which looked to me like hills of stone and earth, which were being used up in the foundations of God’s house and Cathedral which is being built now with great splendour.

PADRE FRAY DIEGO DURAN, Historia de los Indias de Nueva Espana, Vol.
II. Ch. LXXX. p. 82.

Having heard what has been said about the decoration of the Idol, let us hear what there is notable about the beauty of the Temples. I do not wish to begin by relating the accounts given me by the Indians, but that obtained by a monk who was among the first of the Conquerors who entered the country, named Fray Francisco de Aguilar, a very venerable person and one of great authority in the order of our Glorious Father Santo Domingo, and from other conquerors of strict veracity and authority who assured me that on the day when they entered the City of Mexico and beheld the height and beauty of the Temples they believed them to be turreted fortresses for the defence and ornament of the City, or that they were palaces and royal houses with many towers and galleries, such was their beauty and height which could be seen from afar off.

It should be known that of the eight or nine temples which there were in the City all stood close to one another within a great enclosure, inside of which enclosure each one adjoined the other, but each had its own steps and separate patio[17], as well as living rooms and sleeping places for the Ministers of the temples, all of which occupied considerable amount of space and ground. It was indeed a most beautiful sight, for some were more lofty than the others, and some more ornamental than others, some with an entrance to the East others to the West, others to the North and others to the South, all plastered and sculptured, and turreted with various kinds of battlements, painted with animals and figures and fortified with huge and wide buttresses of stone, and it beautified the city so greatly and gave it such an appearance of splendour that one could do nothing but stare at it.

However, as regards the Temple, especially [dedicated to] the Idol [Huitzilopochtli] with which we are dealing, as it was that of the principal God, it was the most sumptuous magnificent of them all.

It had a very large wall round its special court, all built of great stones carved to look like snakes, one holding on to the other, and anyone who wishes to see these stones, let him go to the principal Church of Mexico and there he will see them used as pedestals and bases of the pillars. These stones which are now used there as pedestals formed the wall of the Temple of Huitzilopochtli, and they called this wall Coatepantli, which means wall of snakes. There was on the top of the halls or oratories where the Idol stood a very elegant breastwork covered with small black stones like jet, arranged with much order and regularity, all the groundwork being of white and red plaster, which shone wonderfully [when looked at] from below—on the top of this breastwork were some very ornamental merlons carved in the shape of shells.

At the end of the abutments, which arose like steps a fathom high, there were two seated Indians, in stone, with two torch-holders in their hands, from which torch-holders emerged things like the arms of a cross, ending in rich green and yellow feathers and long borders of the same.

Inside this [the] court there were many chambers and lodgings for the monks and nuns, as well as others on the summit for the priests and ministers who performed the service of the Idol.

This Court was so large that on the occasion of a festival eight or ten thousand men assembled in it; and to show that this is not impossible, I wish to relate an event that is true, related by one who with his own hands killed many Indians within it....

This Court had four doors or entrances, one towards the East, another towards the West, another towards the South, and one on the North side. From these commenced four Causeways, one towards Tlacopan, which we now call the street of Tacuba, another towards Guadelupe, another towards Coyoacan, and the other led to the lake and the landing place of the canoes.

The four principal Temples also have their portals towards the said four directions, and the four Gods which stand in them also have their fronts turned in the same directions.

* * * * *

Opposite the principal gateway of this Temple of Huitzilopochtli there were thirty long steps thirty fathoms long; a street separated them from the wall of the patio[18]. On the top of them [the steps] was a terrace, 30 feet wide and as long as the steps, which was all coated with plaster, and the steps very well made.

Lengthwise along the middle of this broad and long platform was a very well made palisade as high as a tall tree, all planted in a straight line, so that the poles were a fathom apart. These thick poles were all pierced with small holes, and these holes were so close together that there was not half a yard between them, and these holes were continued to the top of the thick and high poles. From pole to pole through the holes came some slender cross-bars on which many human skulls were strung through the forehead. Each cross-bar held thirty heads, and these rows of skulls reached to the top of the timbers and were full from end to end ... all were skulls of the persons who had been sacrificed.

* * * * *

After describing a procession in which the God was carried to Chapultapec and thence to Coyoacan, the author continues:—

When they arrived at the foot of the steps of the Temple they placed the litter [on which the image of the God was carried] there, and promptly taking some thick ropes they tied them to the handles of the litter, and, with great circumspection and reverence, some making efforts from above and others helping from below, they raised the litter with the Idol to the top of the Temple, with much sounding of trumpets and flutes, and clamour of conch-shells and drums; they raised it up in this manner because the steps of the Temple were very steep and narrow [in the tread] and the stairway was long and they could not ascend with it on their shoulders without falling, and so they took that means to raise it up.

HERNANDO ALVARADO TEZOZOMOC, Cronica Mexicana, Ch. XXX, p. 319,
writing of the Temple of Huitzilipochtli, says:—

It could be ascended on three sides and would have as many steps as there are days in the year, for at that time the year consisted of eighteen months, and each month contained twenty days, which amounts to three hundred and sixty days, five days less than our Catholic religion counts. Others count thirteen months to the year. At all events the steps were arranged on three sides of the ascent.

The principal ascent faced the south, the second the east, and the third the west, and on the north side were three walls like a chamber open to the south. It had a great court and Mexican plaza all surrounded by a stone wall, massive and strong, [of which] the foundations were more than a fathom and the height [of the wall] was that of four men’s stature. It had three gateways, two of them small, one facing the east and the other the west; the gateway in the middle was larger, and that one faced the south, and in that direction was the great market place and Tianguiz[19], so that it stood in front of the great palace of Montezuma and the Great Cu. The height of it [the Great Cu or Temple] was so great that, from below, persons [on its summit], however tall they might be, appeared to be of the size of children eight years old or less.

IXTLILXOCHITL (‘Codice Goupil’).

The Temple and principal Cu of this City, indeed of all New Spain, was built in the middle of the city, four square and massive as a mound (terrapleno) of stone and clay, merely and only the surface [built] of masonry. Each side was eighty fathoms long (445 Eng. ft.) and the height was over twenty-seven fathoms (150 Eng. ft.). On the side by which it was ascended were one hundred and sixty steps which faced the west. The edifice was of such a shape that from its foundation it diminished in size and became narrower as it rose in the shape of a pyramid, and at certain distances as it rose it had landing places like benches all around it. In the middle of the steps from the ground and foundation there rose a wall up to the summit and top of the steps, which was like a division that went between the two ascents as far as the patio which was on the top, where there were two great chambers, one larger than the other—the larger one to the south, and there stood the Idol Huitzilopochtli; the other, which was smaller, was to the north and contained the Idol Tlaloc, which (Idol) and Huitzilopochtli and the chambers looked to the west. These chambers were built at the eastern edge and border of the said patio, and thus in front of them the patio extended to the north and south with a [floor of] cement three palms and more in thickness, highly polished, and so capacious that it would hold five hundred men, and at one side of it towards the door of the larger chamber of Huitzilopochtli was a stone rising a yard in height, of the shape and design of an arched coffer, which was called Techcatl (Texcatl) where the Indians were sacrificed. Each of these chambers had upper stories, which were reached from within, the one from the other by movable wooden ladders, and were full of stores of every sort of arms, especially macanas, shields, bows, arrows, lances, slings and pebbles, and every sort of clothing and bows for war. The face and front of the larger chamber was ornamented with stone in the shape and form of death’s heads whitened with lime, which were placed all over the front, and above, for merlons, there were carved stones in the shape of great shells, which and the other with the rest of the Cu is painted on the following page. * * * * [see Plate D].

PLATE A.
Part of the City of Mexico from a modern Map.

TRACING A_{1}.
After J. García Icazbalceta.

TRACING A_{2}.
Suggested site of the Great Teocalli and enclosure.

PLATE B.
Suggested plan and section of the Great Teocalli.

PLATE C.
Plan by Padre Sahagun, after Dr. E. Seler.

PLATE D.
View of the Great Teocalli, after Ixtlilxochitl (‘Codice Goupil’).

PLATE E.
View of the Great Teocalli and enclosure, from ‘The Chronicle of
Mexico,’ 1576. (Manuscript in British Museum, No. 31219. Additional.)

PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS,
RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.

Tracing A_{1}

AFTER J. GARCÍA ICAZBALCETA
]

PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS,
RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.

Tracing A_{2}

PART OF THE CITY OF MEXICO FROM A MODERN MAP

SUGGESTED SITE OF THE GREAT TEOCALLI AND ENCLOSURE
]

PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS,
RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.

Plate A.

PART OF THE CITY OF MEXICO FROM A MODERN MAP
]

Plate B.
]

Plate C.

PLAN BY PADRE SAHAGUN AFTER D^{R.} E. SELER

a = _Great Teocalli_
b = _Eagle Vase_
c = _Priest’s House_
d = _Outer Altar_
e = _Eagle Warrior’s House_
f = _Tlachtli Court_
g = _Skull Scaffold_
h = _Yopic Teocalli_
i = _Wheel Stone_
k = _Collaiacan Teocalli_
l = _5 Lizard (date)_
m = _5 House „_
n = _Dancing Places_
o = _Snake Wall_
p = _Temple Entrances_
]

Plate D.

THE GREAT TEOCALLI.

Codice Goupil—IXLILXOCHITL.
]

Plate E.

THE GREAT TEOCALLI,
FROM THE CHRONICLE OF MEXICO, 1576.

MANUSCRIPT,—BRITISH MUSEUM, NO. 31219. ADDITIONAL.
]

-----

Footnote 1:

‘Mexico en 1554. Tres Dialogos Latinos que Francisco Cervantes Salazar
escribio y imprimio en Mexico en dicho año.’ A reprint with Spanish
translation and notes by Joaquim García Icazbalceta. Mexico, 1875.

Footnote 2:

Dr. Seler states that the house of Mota still retains its name.

Footnote 3:

See paragraphs on pp. 7 & 8.

Footnote 4:

_I. e._ the Enclosure of the Great Temple.

Footnote 5:

A note by Don Lucas Alaman says: “I do not know what was the origin of
this division of the Temple into three parts, which this expression
appears to indicate.”

Footnote 6:

This would agree fairly well with Tracing A_{2}, if the Apetlac or
forecourt were included.

Footnote 7:

Bernal Díaz speaks of them as Torrezillas.

Footnote 8:

Memoriales de Fray Toribio de Motolinia. Manuscrito de la coleccion
del Señor Don Jonquin García Icazbalceta, publicalo por primera vez su
hijo Luis García Pimentel. Paris: A. Donnamette, 30 Rue de Saints
Pères, 1903. This is probably the original manuscript from which the
‘Historia de los Indios de Nueva Hispaña’ was taken.

Footnote 9:

Un poco tuerto.

Footnote 10:

Todo el Pueblo.

Footnote 11:

“Donde parecia terminar la escalinata se descubrió un muro en talud
siguiendo la misma dirección de la escalera.”

Footnote 12:

This must refer not to the altars themselves but the temples
containing the altars.

Footnote 13:

Or towards the rear.

Footnote 14:

Sahagun specifies 78 edifices in connection with the great Temple,
among these are “No. 72, named Itepeioc, a house where the Chieftains
make the image of Vitzilopuchtli out of dough [masa],” and “No. 73,
the building named Vitznoacealpulli, which is the house where they
make the image of the other God, the companion of Vitzilopuchtli,
named Tlacavepancuexcozin.” It thus appears that the two “barrios” or
districts mentioned were sections of the Temple enclosure.

Footnote 15:

Cortés evidently uses the term Mosque (Mesquita) for the whole group
of Temples within the Enclosure.

Footnote 16:

This is evidently an exaggeration, the houses of the Marques del Valle
and the Mexican royal houses were not included in the area of the
Temple Enclosure.

Footnote 17:

The apetlac?

Footnote 18:

The apetlac?

Footnote 19:

Tianguiz is the Mexican word for Market.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

1. P. 20, changed “five hundred Italians” to “five hundred Indians”. 2. Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in spelling. 3. Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed. 4. Re-indexed footnotes using numbers and collected together at the end of the last chapter. 5. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. 6. Enclosed bold font in =equals=. 7. Denoted superscripts by a caret before a single superscript character or a series of superscripted characters enclosed in curly braces, e.g. M^r. or M^{ister}. 8. Denoted subscripts by an underscore before a series of subscripted characters enclosed in curly braces, e.g. H_{2}O.