Illustration of Aqueduct, Tezcocingo.---------

This cut represents the embankment crossing the valley. Along the top
of this way was laid the canals to transport the water, made of an
exceedingly hard cement of mortar and fragments of pounded brick. It is
estimated that nearly, if not quite, as much labor was expended on this
aqueduct as on the Croton aqueduct that supplies New York City.<8> This
last statement is probably too strong, but, considering that this work
was accomplished by a people destitute of iron tools, it is seen to be
a most extraordinary work. From what we have already learned, this
hill was evidently a very important place. On all sides we meet with
evidences that the whole of the hill was covered with artificial works
of one kind or another. On the side of the hill opposite this reservoir
was another recess bordered by seats cut in living rock, and leading to
a perpendicular cliff, on which a calendar is said to have been carved,
but was destroyed by the natives in later days.<9>

Traces of a spiral road leading up the summit have been observed. In
1824 Bullock (who, however, is not regarded as a very accurate observer)
"found the whole mountain had been covered with palaces, temples,
baths, hanging-gardens, and so forth." Latrobe, somewhat later, found
"fragments of pottery and broken pieces of obsidian knives and arrows;
pieces of stucco, shattered terraces, and old walls were thickly
dispersed over its whole surface."<10> Mr. Mayer, after speaking of the
abundance of broken pottery and Indian arrows, says: "The eminence
seems to have been converted from its base to its summit into a pile of
terraced gardens."

By one class of writers this hill is regarded as the "suburban residence
of the luxurious monarchs of Tezcuco,... a pleasure garden upon which
were expended the revenues of the state and the ingenuity of its
artists."<11> Mr. Bancroft has gathered together the details of this
charming story,<12> and tells us that the kings of Mexico had a similar
pleasure resort on the Hill of Chapultepec, a few miles west of the
city.<13> It is sufficient at present to state that an explanation much
simpler and more in accord with our latest scientific information can be
given. It is more likely that this hill was the seat of a village Indian
community. Its location was naturally strong. The water, brought with
so much labor from a distance, furnished a supply for the purpose of
irrigation, as well