A note on the position and extent of the great temple enclosure of Tenochtitlan, / and the position, structure and orientation of the Teocolli of Huitzilopochtli.

by Alfred Percival Maudslay

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 A₁.

After J. García Icazbalceta.

TRACING A₂.

Suggested site of the Great Teocalli and enclosure.