This Temple (not counting the square within which it was built) measured three hundred and sixty feet from corner to corner, and was pyramidal in form and make, for the higher one ascended the narrower became the edifice, the contractions being made at intervals so as to embellish it.
On the top, where there was a pavement and small plaza rather more than seventy feet wide, two very large altars had been built, one apart from the other, set almost at the edge or border of the tower on the east side, so that there was only just sufficient ground and space for a man to walk [on the east side] without danger of falling down from the building.
These altars were five palms in height with their walls inlaid with stone, all painted with figures according to the whim and taste of him who ordered the painting to be done. Above the altars were the chapels roofed with very well dressed and carved wood.
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.