The general description given above, together with the reported character of the superstructure of this magnificent monument, calls to mind the main features of the great teocalli dedicated to the bloody god Huitzilopochtli in the Aztec capital called Tenochtitlan or Mexico. This blood-stained temple upon whose altars smoked the hearts of countless human victims, is supposed to have occupied the site of the cathedral fronting the Plaza Mayor of the modern city of Mexico. Not a vestige of that terraced pyramid has survived the destructive hand of fanaticism and the transforming work of man and nature which have been going on ever since upon the old site of the capital of the Montezumas. It is said to have been built in five stories, with flights of steps affording access to the summit; but each flight was so constructed with reference to the platform at its top, as to require almost a complete circuit of the building before the next flight could be reached. It was necessary, therefore, in order to reach the summit platform, to pass four times around the pyramid. It is supposed that this was intended to display to better advantage the solemn processions of the priests as their long train mounted gradually the sides of the edifice. The specialist is already familiar with the descriptions by Bernal Diaz, whose particular extravagance of statement renders his work altogether unreliable. Also with the accounts by Torquemada, Gomera, Cortez and Clavigero. The reader has no doubt acquainted himself with the main facts in the writings of the graceful and imaginative Prescott, whose seeming romance, _The History of the Conquest of Mexico_, has been proven by recent and reliable investigation to have approached much nearer to fact than to fiction. Mr. Tylor, after careful exploration, has expressed in his “Anahuac” his surprise and satisfaction at what he considers to be the proof of Mr. Prescott’s general correctness of statement as to the extent of the Aztec capital and the probable character of its edifices.[541] For a description of the palaces of Mexico and Chapultepec, the museums, mansions of the nobles, the pavements and aqueducts of that buried city, we refer the reader who has not access to the sources, to the admirable account by Prescott, especially since it more properly belongs to the province of history (now that all traces of them have disappeared) than to that of archæology.[542]