. The Civil engineer and architect's journal, scientific and railway gazette. Architecture; Civil engineering; Science. 186 THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. [June, The ceiling of it is formed by beams of stone laid transversely; but at the intersection of the cross is a cylindrical column supporting a square slab of stone or abacus, forming the ceiling of the chamber at that part. The interior is richly ornamented with different kinds of mosaic fret, and is painted with vermilion. If we may judge from the ruins of their sepulchres which still exist, the Toltecan nation must have paid
. The Civil engineer and architect's journal, scientific and railway gazette. Architecture; Civil engineering; Science. 186 THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. [June, The ceiling of it is formed by beams of stone laid transversely; but at the intersection of the cross is a cylindrical column supporting a square slab of stone or abacus, forming the ceiling of the chamber at that part. The interior is richly ornamented with different kinds of mosaic fret, and is painted with vermilion. If we may judge from the ruins of their sepulchres which still exist, the Toltecan nation must have paid the greatest respect to the memory of their dead. Occasionally we fiud them deposited in ca*-erns wrought by hand, similar to the one we have just spoken of; there is likewise one of the same cruciform shape at Chilan, and another, containing three chambers, near Xochicalco; but most commonly they constructed a large conical heap or tumulus, and faced it with stone or brick; through this was made an arched passage usually running north and south. A tumulus of this kind at Mount Alvan has one side of this passage lined with oblong slabs of granite carved with human figures. There is a very remarkable sepulchral monument situated likewise at Mount Alvan; it is constructed in a conical hill like those before mentioned, but there is also an arched passage running east and west, intersecting that running from north to south. At this intersection is a large and well constructed rotunda, the dome of which is somewhat in the shape cf a parabolic conoid; the sides and interior are lined with good ma- sonry, and at the top is a kind of funnel or chimney going right through to the exterior summit of the tumulus; this was probably used for purposes of ventilation. The Toltecans generally made the arches of their bridges square headed, by means of a stone lintel laid across from pier to pier, but not unfrequently they placed long beams of stone leaning towards one another at an angle of ab
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