Popocatepetl. The Aztec name means “Smoking Mountain.” According to legend, Popocatepetl, a warrior, was enamored of Ixtaccihuatl, daughter of the emperor. When Popocatepetl was returning from victory in war to claim his beloved, his rivals sent word that he had been killed, whereupon Ixtaccihuatl died of grief. Popocatepetl then built the great mountain pyramids, on one of which he placed her body, while he himself stands on the other holding her funeral torch.

There is a reproduction of Popocatepetl in eruption on p. 25 of the Codex Telleriano Ramensis, noted for the year 4 House, equivalent to 1509 A.D. Before the conquest Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl were worshipped as deities, and at festivals of the mountains, called Tepeylhuitl, there were images of Popocatepetl made of amarand and maize seed paste. In the great temple of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital founded in 1325 on the present site of Mexico City, there was a wooden idol of Ixtaccihuatl.

The crater was reached in 1519 by Diego de Ordaz, one of Cortes’ officers, with nine Spaniards and several Tlascalan Indians. The king of Spain allowed the Ordaz family to assume a figure of the burning mountain on their escutcheon in commemoration of this feat. In 1522, Francisco Montano had himself lowered 400- 500 ft. into the crater to secure sulphur for gunpowder.

Humboldt, in 1803, from the Llano de Tetruba, secured a reading of 17,700 ft. for the elevation. The brothers Glennie reached the highest point of the crater wall in 1827, obtaining a barometric reading of 17,884 ft. Truqui and Craveri ascended in 1855 to a point 50 m. below the summit, stated to be 17,159 ft. A. Sonntag, ascending in 1857, reported his results in the Smithsonian. Contributions to Knowledge (xi), giving a figure of

17,785 ft.

The French Scientific Commission, Dolfus, De Montserrat and Pavie, reached the S. E. rim of the crater but not the Pico Mayor. Heilprin and Baker, in 1890, state distinctly that they ascended the Pico Mayor, for which Heilprin gives an altitude of 17,523 ft. The Mexican Geological Survey remained two days on the summit and reported 17,876 ft. in 1895, while the Mexican Geographical Society calculated it as being 17,885 ft.