pyramid,
within the inclosed square, we may suppose this to have been dedicated
to their religion. As if to confirm this belief, is the statement that
on the hill to the back of the pyramid are numerous tiers of seats,
either broken in the rock or built of rough stone. The people seated on
them would be conveniently located as regards both sight and hearing of
what transpired there.

From an Indian's point of view, this hill was very strongly fortified.
It would be almost impossible for an enemy to capture the settlement on
its summit. The surrounding country was probably fertile, and a large
body of Indians could have lodged within the fortified inclosures. It
has some peculiar features, which have been pointed out. There is now no
water on the hill, but traces of what is supposed to be an aqueduct are
observed, as well as several tanks, and at one place a well. There is
not an appearance of great antiquity about these ruins, and yet native
traditions are silent in regard to them, and but one of the early
writers refers to them, and he had not seen them.<30>

West of the central basin the remains are more numerous than to the
north, but they are not very striking, and it is scarcely worth our
while to stop and examine them. About sixty miles in a south-easterly
direction from Mexico is the modern town of Cholula. This has grown at
the expense of the ancient city of Cholula, grouped around the famous
pyramid of that name. This was the Mexican "Tower of Babel." The
traditions in regard to it smack so strongly of outside influence that
but little reliance can be placed on them. They are evidently a mixture
of native traditions and Biblical stories. Like Teotihuacan and Tulla,
this is regarded as a relic of Toltec times. This is but another way of
saying that it is older in time than the majority of ruins.

At the time of Cortez's march to Mexico Cholula was a very important
place. In his dispatches he says: "The great city of Cholula is situated
in a plain, and his twenty thousand householders in the body of the
city, besides as many more in the suburbs." He further states that he
himself counted the towers of more than four hundred "idol temples."<31>

We must remember that this is a Spanish account, and therefore
exaggerated. Still, after making due allowance for the same, it would
remain an important aboriginal settlement. We have no reliable data of
the population at the time of the conquest. From documentary evide