The Temple Enclosure was surrounded by a high masonry wall (Anon.,
Torq., Moto.) known as the Coatenamitl or Serpent Wall, which some say
was embattled (Torq. quoting Sahagun, Moto.). There were four principal
openings (Anon., Torq., Moto., Duran) facing the principal streets or
causeways (Torq., Moto., Duran). (Tezozomoc alone says there were only
three openings—east, west and south—and three only are shown on
Sahagun’s plan.) “It was about 200 _brazas_ square” (Sahagun), _i. e._
about 1013 English feet square. However, Sahagun’s plan (Plate C) shows
an oblong.
As the four openings faced the principal streets or causeways, the
prolongation of the line of the causeways of Tacuba and Iztapalapa must
have intersected within the Temple Enclosure. This intersection
coincides with junction of the modern streets of Escalerillas, Relox,
Sta. Teresa, and Seminario (see Plate A).
We have now to consider the boundaries of the Temple Enclosure, and this
can best be done by establishing the positions of the Temple of
Tezcatlipoca and the Palace of Axayacatl.
=The Temple of Tezcatlipoca.= (Tracing A_{2}.)
(DURAN, ch. lxxxiii.)
“This Temple was built on the site (afterwards) occupied by the
Archbishop’s Palace, and if anyone who enters it will take careful
notice he will see that it is all built on a terrace without any lower
windows, but the ground floor (primer suelo) all solid.”
This building is also mentioned in the 2nd Dialogue of Cervantes
Salazar[1], where, in reply to a question, Zuazo says:—“It is the
Archbishop’s Palace, and you must admire that first story (primer piso)
adorned with iron railings which, standing at such a height above the
ground, rests until reaching the windows on a firm and solid
foundation.” To this Alfaro replies:—“It could not be demolished by
Mines.”
The Arzobispado, which still occupies the same site in the street of
that name, must therefore have been originally built on the solid
foundation formed by the base of the Teocalli of Tezcatlipoca.
=The Palace of Axayacatl.= (Tracing A_{2}.)
(‘Descripción de las dos Piedras, etc.,’ 1790, by Don ANTONIO DE LEON
Y GAMA. Bustamante, Edition ii. p. 35.)
“In these houses of the family property of the family called Mota[2], in
the street of the Indio Triste.... These houses were built in the 16th
century on a part of the site occupied by the great Palace of the King
Axayacatl, where the Spaniards were lodged when first they entered
Mexico, which was contiguous (estaba inmediato) with the wall that
enclosed the great Temple.”
Don Carlos M. de Bustamante adds in a footnote to this
passage:—“Fronting these same buildings, behind the convent of Santa
Teresa la Antigua, an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was worshipped,
which was placed in that position to perpetuate the memory that here
mass was first celebrated in Mexico, in the block (cuadra) where stood
the gate of the quarters of the Spaniards.... This fact was often
related to me by my deceased friend, Don Francisco Sedano, one of the
best antiquarians Mexico has known.”
(GARCÍA ICAZBALCETA, note to 2nd Dialogue of Cervantes Salazar, p.
185.)
“The Palace of Axayacatl, which served as a lodging or quarters for the
Spaniards, stood in the Calle de Sta. Teresa and the 2a Calle del Indio
Triste.”
So far as I can ascertain, no eye-witness or early historian describes
the position of the Palace of Axayacatl, but tradition and a consensus
of later writers place it outside the Temple Enclosure to the north of
the Calle de Sta. Teresa and to the west of the 2a Calle del Indio
Triste. No northern boundary is given.
Taking the point A in the line of the Calle de Tacuba as the
hypothetical site of the middle of the entrance in the Eastern wall of
the Temple Enclosure and drawing a line A-B to the Eastern end of the C.
de Arzobispado, we get a distance of about 450 feet; extend this line in
a northerly direction for 450 feet to the point C, and the line B-C may
be taken as the Eastern limit of the Temple Enclosure.
The Northern and Southern entrance to the Enclosure must have been at D
and E, that is in the line of the Calle de Iztapalapa.
Extending the line B-E twice its own length in a westerly direction
brings us to the South end of the Empedradillo at the point F.
Completing the Enclosure we find the Western entrance at G in the line
of the Calle de Tacuba and the north-west corner at H.
This delimitation of the Temple Enclosure gives a parallelogram
measuring roughly 900′ × 1050′, not at all too large to hold the
buildings it is said to have contained, and not far from Sahagun’s
_doscientos brazas en cuadro_ (1012′ × 1012′).
It divides the Enclosure longitudinally into two equal halves, which is
on the side of probability.
It leaves two-thirds of the Enclosure to the West and one-third to the
East of the line of the Calle de Iztapalapa[3].
It includes the site of the Temple of Tezcatlipoca.
It agrees with the generally accepted position of the Palace of
Axayacatl and of the Aviary.
It includes the site of the Teocalli, the base of which was discovered
at No. 8, 1^{ra} Calle de Relox y Cordobanes.
It will now be seen how closely this agrees with the description given
by Don Lucas Alaman, one of the best modern authorities on the
topography of the City.
(Disertaciones, by Don LUCAS ALAMAN, 1844. Octava Disertacion, vol.
ii. p. 246.)
“We must now fix the site occupied by the famous Temple of
Huichilopochtli[4]. As I have stated above, on the Southern side it
formed the continuation of the line from the side walk (acera) of the
Arzobispado towards the Alcaiceria touching the front of the present
Cathedral. On the West it ran fronting the old Palace of Montezuma, with
the street now called the Calle del Empedradillo (and formerly called
the Plazuela del Marques del Valle) between them, but on the East and
North it extended far beyond the square formed by the Cathedral and
Seminario, and in the first of these directions reached the Calle
Cerrada de Sta. Teresa, and followed the direction of this last until it
met that of the Ensenanza now the Calle Cordobanes and the Montealegre.”