Architecture, however, was naturally the most widely practised of the arts. Their buildings were massive structures of gigantic proportions. The dwelling houses in the cities were not, as ours are, closely crowded together in streets. Like their country houses some stood in their own garden grounds, others were separated by plots of common land, but all were isolated structures. In the case of houses of any importance four blocks of building surrounded a central courtyard, in the centre of which generally stood one of the fountains whose number in the "City of the Golden Gates" gained for it the second appellation of the "City of Waters." There was no exhibition of goods for sale as in modern streets. All transactions of buying and selling took place privately, except at stated times, when large public fairs were held in the open spaces of the cities. But the characteristic feature of the Toltec house was the tower that rose from one of its corners or from the centre of one of the blocks. A spiral staircase built outside led to the upper stories, and a pointed dome terminated the tower--this upper portion being very commonly used as an observatory. As already stated the houses were decorated with bright colours. Some were ornamented with carvings, others with frescoes or painted patterns. The window-spaces were filled with some manufactured article similar to, but less transparent than, glass. The interiors were not furnished with the elaborate detail of our modern dwellings, but the life was highly civilized of its kind.

The temples were huge halls resembling more than anything else the gigantic piles of Egypt, but built on a still more stupendous scale. The pillars supporting the roof were generally square, seldom circular. In the days of the decadence the aisles were surrounded with innumerable chapels in which were enshrined the statues of the more important inhabitants. These side shrines indeed were occasionally of such considerable size as to admit a whole retinue of priests, whom some specially great man might have in his service for the ceremonial worship of his image. Like the private houses the temples too were never complete without the dome-capped towers, which of course were of corresponding size and magnificence. These were used for astronomical observations and for sun-worship.

The precious metals were largely used in the adornment of the temples, the interiors being often not merely inlaid but plated with gold. Gold and silver were highly valued, but as we shall see later on when the subject of the currency is dealt with, the uses to which they were put were entirely artistic and had nothing to do with coinage, while the great quantities that were then produced by the chemists--or as we should now-a-days call them alchemists--may be said to have taken them out of the category of the precious metals. This power of transmutation of metals was not universal, but it was so widely possessed that enormous quantities were made. In fact the production of the wished-for metals may be regarded as one of the industrial enterprises of those days by which these alchemists gained their living. Gold was admired even more than silver, and was consequently produced in much greater quantity.

「然而，建築自然是應用最廣泛的藝術。他們的建築物規模龐大。城市裡的住宅不像我們的那樣，在街上緊密地擠在一起。就像他們的鄉間別墅一樣，有些建在自己的花園裡，有些則被公共土地隔開，但都是孤立的建築。就任何重要的房屋而言，四棟建築圍繞著一個中央庭院，庭院中央通常矗立著一個噴泉，其數量在“金門之城”中贏得了“金門之城”的第二個稱號。沒有像現代街道上那樣陳列出售的商品。所有的買賣交易都是私下進行的，除了在城市露天場所舉行大型公共集市的規定時間外。但托爾特克房屋的特徵是塔樓從它的一個角落或一個街區的中心升起。外部建造的螺旋樓梯通往上層，尖頂圓頂終止了塔樓——該上部部分通常用作天文台。正如已經說過的，這些房子都裝飾著鮮豔的色彩。有些飾有雕刻，有些則飾有壁畫或彩繪圖案。窗戶空間充滿了一些類似玻璃的製成品，但透明度不如玻璃。室內裝潢沒有我們現代住宅的精緻細節，但生活卻是高度文明的。

這些神廟是巨大的大廳，與埃及的巨大建築最相似，但建造規模更加驚人。支撐屋頂的柱子一般都是方形的，圓形的很少。在頹廢的日子裡，走道周圍有無數的小教堂，裡面供奉著更重要的居民的雕像。這些側面的神殿有時確實規模相當大，足以容納一整群祭司的隨從，一些特別偉大的人物可能會僱用他們來為他的肖像進行儀式崇拜。與私人住宅一樣，如果沒有圓頂塔樓，寺廟永遠不會完整，當然，這些塔樓也具有相應的規模和宏偉。這些用於天文觀測和太陽崇拜。

貴金屬主要用於寺廟的裝飾，內部通常不僅鑲嵌而且鍍金。黃金和白銀的價值很高，但正如我們稍後討論貨幣主題時將看到的那樣，它們的用途完全是藝術性的，與鑄幣無關，而當時生產的大量黃金和白銀可以說，化學家——或者我們現在應該稱他們為煉金術士──將它們從貴金屬的範疇中剔除出來。這種金屬的轉變能力並不普遍，但它的擁有如此廣泛，以致於產量龐大。事實上，生產所需的金屬可以被視為當時煉金術士賴以謀生的工業企業之一。黃金比白銀更受推崇，因此黃金的產量也大得多。」

The Atlanteans and their abuse of power
...... (亞特蘭提斯人

今天，我們聽到很多關於不明飛行物從水中出現的消息，無論是大湖還是海洋。這是很說得通的，因為海底下有許多外星人基地；受到保護並免受窺探。