The Pyramids of the Sun and Moon are twenty-seven miles northeast of the City of Mexico. They were built by the Toltec (tl´tk) Indians, nobody knows when; but scholars are sure they are more than a thousand years old. The Pyramid of the Sun is 761 feet by 721 feet at the base. It is built in terraces, the last level being 216 feet above the foundation. On the top is a level space 59 feet by 105 feet, and this was formerly crowned with an image of the sun, the god of the Toltec. Here was their holy city and here their kings were crowned. The man in the foreground is on the top of the Pyramid of the Moon, which is smaller. There are remains of others of still smaller size, standing beside a roadway called the Street of the Dead. These pyramids are of volcanic stone laid in vegetable mold. No mortar was used in joining the stones. The surface was covered with a kind of cement, patches of which still remain. This is a rich, well-cultivated land. You will notice the agave (å-g´v), or century plants, growing in straight rows. Some varieties are raised for their fibers, others for the juice which is made into pulque (pl´k). Other crops are drying in the fields. Carefully constructed irrigation ditches provide the water necessary for agriculture. The historian Prescott tells us that before the Spanish conquered Mexico the Indians cultivated the land. Forests and gardens covered the plateau. Irrigation ditches brought the water from the mountains to rich fields of maize. The Spanish rule was destructive and even now much of the plateau is bare and dry. Keystone ID: 10925 Note: All titles, descriptions, and location coordinates are from the original Keystone Slide documentation as supplied by the Keystone View Company. No text has been edited or changed.