Now that a sketch has been given of the beliefs and mode of life of the Ancient Mexicans, it is necessary to deal in some measure with the remains of their culture scattered over the country. As far as architecture is concerned, the greater proportion of ruined buildings must be considered to have been either temples or structures associated in some way with religion, and perhaps government. The Mexicans gave of their best to the gods, and though the _corvée_ system enabled large numbers of men to be employed at one time on works of considerable magnitude, the rulers seem to have spent more care on the buildings erected for the service of their deities than on their own habitations. The peculiar feature of Mexican architecture lies in the fact that every building of importance was erected upon a substructure, terrace or truncated pyramid, which, though essentially secondary in importance to the building or buildings with which it was crowned, yet represented a vast amount of labour, many hundred times greater than that expended on the superstructure. This feature has been unfortunate, in a sense, for Mexican archæology, since the pyramidal mounds, once the superimposed buildings have disappeared, present a superficial analogy to the pyramids of Egypt. There can however be no real comparison, the Egyptian pyramid represented a building in itself, while the Mexican was in essence a mere accessory. The foundation-mounds must be distinguished from the mounds of the northern Pueblo region, which are formed for the most part of the debris of buildings which have fallen into decay. True foundation-mounds are rarely found north of a line drawn, roughly, from La Quemada in Zacatecas to the Gulf of Mexico in the region of the Panuco valley; but south of it, right down to Honduras, they are a characteristic feature of architecture. There was a large number of temple pyramids, of varied dimensions, in Tenochtitlan (Sahagun gives a long list), but two were of outstanding importance, one in Tenochtitlan proper, the other in the suburb of Tlaltelolco. Both were so utterly destroyed by the Spaniards that it is not easy at the present time to fix their exact position. The most recent, and most successful, attempt to work out the details of the great Mexican temple from all sources, literary and archæological, is that of Maudslay, to which reference can be made by those wishing for more minute particulars (see also Fig. 12; p. 87). The pyramid, or teocalli, stood at the eastern end of a large court, about 300 by 350 yards, surrounded by a wall on which were carved snakes. It was built in five tiers, of earth and stones faced with masonry; the base measured something over 100 yards, and the upper surface over 70 yards square. A flight of more than 100 steps on the west side gave access to the summit, and on the eastern edge of the latter were two shrines, each of two storeys, built, as seems most probable, chiefly of wood. These two shrines were dedicated