AN ANCIENT CITY.

Western Star, 23 May 1930, Page 3

AN ANCIENT CITY.

Following an animal trail through thick jungle on a huge mesa in the State of Vera Cruz led Charles,. M. Drayton, pilot of the Mexican Aviation Company, and his companions, J. G. PHilen jun., and F 0 Wilry, of Brownsville, to the discovery of two pyramids' about, 80ft high, ' says the 'Christian Science Monitor). The pyramids were six miles apart, and connected with a broad highway running straight across the mesa. Near by was the ruin-of an edifice which might have been an ancient" Aztec temple or one of the first jungle churches constructed by the conquerors. Its state J and the fact that the jungle had almost, reclaimed it, as well as the pyramids and highway, kept the men from determining whether it was Aztec or Spanish. The discoverers of the rains believe they are the first white men ever to see them, inasmuch as none of the Indians resident there had any knowledge of them. The men stumbled upon the ruins by pure accident, as* jungle growth hid them even within a yard of the base.

They were chopping their way through the jungle when suddenly they came to a low stone wall. Just ahead they saw what appeared to be a. small hill, but examination disclosed that it was 1 a pyramid of seven terraces about 200 ft along the base, and 80ft high. Oh top were several sacrificial stones and'a shaft which had 3>een filled with debris. Leading from the pyramid they founa a highway paved with cut stone which led for six miles across the mesa, at the ' other end of which they found another pyramid, almost identical. .On the open spaces of the mesa, which is completely uninhabited, they discovered hundreds of burial mounds, some of which were 20ft high. There were' also innumerable wells, faced with stone and still serviceble. The' number of burial mounds and walls on the open surface of the. mesa kept the men from landing their aeroplane on top of the table-land and they had . to set up camp six hours distant by hoi;sebaCk. The ruins are 125 miles southwest of Tampico, about 80 miles from the gulf, and only 100 miles in an. aeroplane from, Mexico City. When the 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 tropical storm 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 j expedition to the rui«S within a lew ' months. •