MEXICAN A RCII ITECTURE. Tim ancient architectural remains in the Valley of Mexico, and in the adjacent countries, have never yet been examined with care and patience by a competent archi tect, or archeologist, to enable tin to speak with any approach to certainty of their relative antiquity, or to characterise distinctly their essential peculiarities of age and style. Those who have visited and described them have been, fur the meet part, chiefly interested in dia. covering points of resemblance or dissimilitude with other ancient edifices, as those of Egypt, India, Greece, or even, as in the case of Lord Kingsborough, Jerusalem. Mexican architecture is that of two distinct people : the Tolteks, who occupied Mexico prior to the 7th century of our era ; and the Azteke, with whom may he associated the Chichemacas, who inhabited the country at the Spanish conquest early in the 16th century. That which is believed to belong to the earlier race in also the most remarkable ; the later would seem to hare been derived from it. Architecture in its essential features similar to that of the Toltcka exists in various parts of Central America, and may be associated with it. Aa far es our present knowledge extends, the architecture of Mexico is to be regarded as, in the main, melt-developed, rather than borrowed from that of any other country. The buildings display vast labour, and often considerable skill ; but, whether regarded R8 constructive works or as works of art, they are at best the productions of a barbarous people. Yet, in their way, they are works of singular interest, and will repay a far more thorough investigation than they have yet received.
As in almost every other national architecture, the most important edifices are those devoted to the purposes of religion. These are known as Teocallis, and appear, like the Egyptian temples, to have contained apartments for the priests ; they also contained sepulchral chambers, and bad descending galleries leading down into eaverned recesses or belle, which are variously conjectured to have been used for religious mysteries, or as places for the concealment of treasures, but may pro bably have been used for both purposes. In plan, these buildings are
square ; in form pyramidal, generally rising in successive storeys or stages, like a series of truncated pyramids placed one above another, each successive one being smaller than the one on which it immediately rests, so that it stands upon a platform or terrace ; tho holy place, or temple proper, being built on the summit, and subordinate in effect to the pyramid. The sides of the pyramids face the cardinal points; their angle of inclination is seldom less than 70 degrees, which differs little from that of the pyramids of Egypt.
The largest, most sacred, and best known of these Teocallis is that of Cholula, for which a fancied prototype has been found in the Temple of Belus, as described by This pyramid-temple of Cholula is now in appearance little more than a vast mound of earth covered with vegetation, and crowned with a small church. But on near in spection its architectural features are sufficiently distinguishable. The base of this huge structure measures 1440 feet each way (some autho rities say 1488 feet); its height is 177 feet : the sides of the base of the great pyramid of Gizeh are only 763 feet, so that the area of the Mexican pyramid is nearly four times that of the greatest of those of Egypt, but it is not a third of the height. The body of the pyramid is formed of clay and sun-dried bricks. It consists of four terraces ; and on the summit is a small church dedicated to the Virgin, which occupies a temple of the Toltek god of the air. From the perishable material of which it was constructed, its decorative features have all disappeared, and but a very imperfect notion can be formed of its original appearance. It contains spacious sepulchral cavities; and a square chamber funned of stone and supporttel by beams of cypress wood was some years back discovered in it. Within thisfehamber were two skeletons and several painted yams.