t recently discovered, inhabit a continent which rivalled the
splendour of Egypt and Syria, and was peopled by a powerful and highly
cultivated nation from the old world. When we speak of what is called
Mexican antiquities, we must not confound the rude labours of modern
times, with the splendid perfections which distinguished the efforts of
those who reared the Egyptian pyramids, and built the temples of Thebes
and Memphis. It is not Mexican antiquities, but the antiquities of
Tultecan; and in addition to the ruins of Palenque, on this _our_
continent, there are pyramids larger than those of Sachara in Egypt, at
Cholula, Otamba, Paxaca, Mitlan, Tlascola, and on the mountains of
Tescoca, together with hieroglyphics, planispheres and zodiacs, a
symbolic and Photenic alphabet; papyrus, metopes, triglyphs, and temples
and buildings of immense grandeur; military roads, aqueducts, viaducts,
posting stations and distances; bridges of great grandeur and massive
character, all presenting the most positive evidences of the existence
of a powerful enterprising nation, which must have flourished two
thousand years before the Spanish conquest. Take, for example, the
description of the temple at Palenque, which Lord Kingsborough, in his
travels, not only declares _was_ built by the Jews, and is a copy of
Solomon's temple, but which, no doubt, is precisely the model of the
temple described by Ezekiel. Travellers speak of it in the following
terms:

"It may be appropriately called an ecclesiastical city, rather than a
temple. Within its vast precincts there appear to be contained (as
indeed was, in some measure, the case with the area that embraced the
various buildings of Solomon's temple) a pyramidal tower, various
sanctuaries, sepulchres; a small and a large quadrangular court, one
surrounded, as we have said, by cloisters; subterranean initiatory
galleries beneath; oracles, courts of justice, high places, and cells or
dwellings for the various orders of priests. The whole combination of
the buildings is encircled by a quadrilateral pilastered portico,
embracing a quadrangular area, and resting on a terraced platform. This
platform exhibits the same architectural model, which we have described
as characterising the single temples. It is composed of three graduated
stuccoed terraces, sloping inwards, at an angle of about seventy
degrees, in the form of a truncated pyramid. Four central staircases
(one facing each of the car