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.