At a spot marked a, in Tracing A2, 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 A2, 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.