Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1904-03-18
FINDS PALACE
OF MONTEzUMA
White Traveller for the First Time 6azes
Upon Remarkable Ruin on Cliff.

Il / AudG buCiC buOuid C4iou y"
hundred miles from Mexico City, ur
! discovered until now and unexplored
4 It's massive walls now tottering as the
! !protect the tlonely shepherds who fire
lquent the spot, a castle whose graud
eur cannot be exceIled by anything ol
Americas soil would seem incredible
But such is fact.
Situated on cliff whose almost per
pendicular walls descend eight hun
dred to Thousand feet to the ravlne be
low, almost encircled by two ravine
along whose narrw beds flow crysta
waters that ooze from many springs
with no entrance except over narrow
neck fifteen feet wide, on top of tht
cliff, stands today the castle of the
Montezumas, if the legend current
among the natives in that vicinity il
true.
A prospoctor recently heard from
several natives whom be had met on a
tour that somewhere, hiddin from
mankind by reason of the mountains
intervening between it and the rail.
way, and by reason of the many deep
raYines and dangerous barances which
prevent other than shepherds from
approaching, there was wonderful
fortress commanding view of the
valley.
The natives intimated that the exist.
ence of this structure was known alone
to them and that no one other than
those born near there had ever visit ed
the spot.
| Although he offered several Indians
Ave days. wages to conduct him there
they refused, intimating that they
were afraid they might incur the dis
pleasure of their people and thereby
suffer. One majordome of large haci.
enda furnished one of bis laborers to
guide the prospector.
| Tepexe Viejo, the ruins in question,
Is an abandoned castle situated seven
hours ride on horseback from Matam-
| oras. About three hundred feet dist
ant from the cliff on which Tepexe
| Viejo stands, and as if to guard the en-:
trance, are two peaks of red sandstone
fully $500 feet high. Flowing between
these is stream twenty feet wide and
not deeper than two feet. which dash
es along at a terrific rate over the
gravel bed.
| Passing over this stream one begins
to ascend very steep hill that seems
to have been formed since the erection
of the castle. When one has reached
the summit he finds himself facing a
wall thirty feet high and 120 feet long.
This wall inclines inward at an angle
of about seventy degrees from the hor-
izontal 1t is made of stone slabs 18
by "a irches thick. the narrow sides
turned outward. Behind this first
layer of stone slabs is two foot filling
of gravel and a kind of cement, and
then an inner wall of smaller slabs.
The stones are carefully placed. so
that no cement has been necessary to
hold them in place. The walls lnclose
fully ten acres of ground, and within
this inclosure are the walls of nearly
thirty different rooms. The architect.
ure throughout is the same.
On the west side is strongly forti'
fled wall in the shape of crescent,
with the extremes fully eight hund.
red feet apart. From the top of this
one may look down into a beautiful
stream nearly thousand feet below.
Some of the wall has fallen about mid
way of the crescent, and stone slabs
that have been displaced here can be
seen hundreds of feet below.
Across the only roadway that leads
from the highlands to this mountain
top is a deep ditch, on whose sides
stand we'll preserved pillars upon which
were swung drawbridges. This side
of the wall is much thicker and strong
er than the others, while several
strongly built towers guard the en-
trance to the drawbridge.
In one end of room near the south
side was a small tunnel" as the guide
called it, an oval shaped opening just
! large enough for human being to
squeeze through. The guide repeated
a legend current among his people
that the Aztec medicine men compel
| ed untried warriors to 60 through this
tunnel, one hundred feet long, to test
their service.
ii Near this small tunnel, which looks
more as if it was vent or sluice fol-
running ores or metals into large ce
\ mented receptacle at its end. there Ii
; q tunnel about seven feet high from
vault to floor. The walls are well bull
\ with the same kind of stone slabs ant
; the floor looks as if it had been cement
led.
Ill Several fallen slabs from coplnl
Ioverhead prevented entrance to thi
2lmysterious place.
III Six young men once attempted to e1
plore this place. Three remained a
the entrance Willie the other thre
cautiously felt their way, lighte'
? matches in hand, They had gone sixt
feet when one of the explorers calle
out to the others to come and sse th
wonderful looking objects that stoo
lnear the walls. The sound of this youn
y mems voice was SO startling that 1t
sudden gust of wind, as he expresse
lit, extinguished the light. Allreache
lopen air again and lived to tell the ia
to their progeny.
Some shepherds who had lost the
sheep tell in lowered voice of tw
headed man who used to be seen emer
ing from this funnel, but they asse
THAT since the entrance was filed (
the falling stone he mas not been see