Pyramid of Papantla.
RUINS OF PAPANTLA.
About a hundred and fifty miles north-westward from Vera Cruz, fifty miles in the same direction from the ruins of Misantla, forty-five miles from the coast, and four or five miles south-west from the pueblo of Papantla, stands the pyramid shown in the cut, known to the world by the name of the pueblo, Papantla, but called by the Totonac natives of the region, El Tajin, the 'thunderbolt.' It was accidentally discovered in March, 1785, by one Diego Ruiz, who was exploring this part of the county in an official capacity, with a view to prevent the illegal raising of tobacco; and from his report a description and copper-plate engraving were prepared and published in the Gaceta de Mexico.[VIII-38] Humboldt described but did not visit the pyramid. He states that Dupaix and Castañeda explored and made drawings of it, but neither description nor plates appear in the work of these travelers.[VIII-39] The German artist Nebel visited Papantla about 1831, and made a fine and doubtless perfectly accurate drawing, from which the cut which I have given has been copied.[VIII-40]
The pyramid stands in a dense forest, apparently not on a naturally or artificially fortified plateau like the remains further south. Its base is square, measuring a little over ninety feet on each side, and the height is about fifty-four feet; the whole structure was built in seven stories, the upper story being partially in ruins.[VIII-41] Except the upper story, which seems to have contained interior compartments, the whole structure was, so far as known, solid. The material of which it was built is sandstone, in regularly cut blocks laid in mortar—although Humboldt, perhaps on the authority of Dupaix, says the material is porphyry in immense blocks covered with hieroglyphic sculpture—the whole covered on the exterior surface with a hard cement three inches thick, which also bears traces of having been painted. According to the account in the Gaceta, the stones that form the tops of the many niches shown in the cut are from five and a half to seven feet long, four to five and a half wide, and four to nine inches thick. Respecting the stairway nothing can be said in addition to what is shown in the cut. It leads up the eastern slope, and is the only means of ascent to the summit. It is divided by solid balustrades into five divisions, only two of which extend uninterruptedly to the upper story, while the central division can hardly have been used at all as a stairway.[VIII-42]
The niches shown in my cut extend entirely round the circumference of each story, except where interrupted on the east by the stairways. Each niche is about three feet square and two feet deep, except those in the centre of the eastern front, which are smaller. Their whole number seems to have been three hundred and twenty-one, according to Nebel's plate, without including those that may have occurred on the seventh story.[VIII-43]
RUINS OF MAPILCA.
Only slight mention is made of any scattered or movable relics at Papantla. It is said that fragments of ruins are scattered over an area of half a league from the pyramid, but no exploration has been made. A small golden idol is reported by Gondra to have been found here, very like a terra-cotta image of Quetzalcoatl, from Culhuacan, of which a cut will be given in the next chapter. Bausa speaks of a stone trough found on the summit of the pyramid, ruins of houses in regular streets in the vicinity, and immense sculptured blocks of stone.
