AVIATORS FIND OLD PYRAMIDS IN MEXICO

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7201, 26 April 1930, Page 4

AVIATORS FIND OLD PYRAMIDS IN MEXICO

An Ancient Highway MEXICO GITY, April 5. Following an animal trail through thick jungle 04 a huge incsa in the Stato of Vera Cruz led Mr, C. M. Drayton, pilot of the Mexican Aviation Company, and bis companions, Messrs. ,f. G. Phiicn, jtinr., and P. O. Willy, of Brownsville, to the discovery of two pyramids about SO feet high. The pyrainids wore six miles apart and odddeetea with 4 BroAd highway running straight aefdSS the mesa. Near by wdS the fdid of an edifice which might have BSeil an ancient Azteo temple Or one of the first. jungle churches constructed by the conquerors. Its state and the fact that the jiingle had almost reclaimed it, as weil as tEb pyramids and highway, kept the mbn from determining whether it was Aztec of Spanish.. The discoverers of the ruinß believo thgy afe the first white men ever to sco them, inasmuch aa none of the Indians resident there had any knowledge of them. The men stuniblod on the ruins by'pure accident, as jungle growth hid them even within a yard of the base. They wore chopping their - way through the jungle when suddenly thoy came to a low stono wall. Just ahead they saw What appeared to be a small hill, but examination disclosed that it was a pyramid of seven terfados, about 200 feet along the base and 80 feet righ. On . top Were several sacrificial stones and a. Shaft which had becii filled With debris.

Leading from, the pyramid they found a highway paved With cut stone which led for six milds across tho mesa and at the other 1 end of which they found another pyramid, almost identical. On the open spaces of tho mesa, which is completely uninhabited, they discovered hundreds of burial mounds, some of which were 20 feet high. There were also innumerable wells, faced with stone and still serviceable. The number of burial mounds and wells on tho open surface of the mesa kept the men from landing their aeroplane on top 6f the tableland, and they had to set up a camp six hours distant by horseback. The ruins are 125 miles south-west-of Tampico, about SO miles from the gulf, find only 100 miles in an aeroplane from Mexico City. When tho men told Indians living on lower plateaus of their find, the Indians recalled a legend of how their predecessors had discovered an edifice on the plateau many years before and had uncovered a golden image, which had been lost when a terrific tropicalstorm and nightfall preyed on their superstitions, causing them to throw away the. treasure. The legendary edifice had never been discovered by the modern Indians.

The story led the explorers to believe that perhaps more gold objects lie buried about the ruins or in the mounds. The men are planning an organised expedition to the ruins within a few months.