Lost City of the Incas (Phoenix Press) (33 page)

The walls of the buildings of a neighbouring group are of very roughly squared stones laid in clay in irregular courses, yet the terrace on which they were built is faced with unusually large ashlars nicely joined, presumably the work of an earlier period. Before the more recent wall was constructed a small conduit was cut into the top of one of the fine old blocks of the retaining wall so as to permit the courtyard of this compound to be properly drained.

The finest and most interesting structures are on the west side of the city. Beginning with the north-west corner, after ascending a series of terraces one comes to a spot on top of a hill which commands a magnificent view in all directions, including not only the city itself and the cultivated terraces but also the Grand Canyon of the Urubamba. I know of no place in Peru that has a more inspiring prospect. Many of the mountains are covered by dense tropical vegetation from top to bottom; others are bare except for scant pasture; while still others consist of sheer granite precipices. On clear days snow-capped peaks may be
seen both east and west, the finest being those of Salcantay and Soray, which are conspicuous from the lower Cuzco Valley.

On top of this little hill, from which the bridge of San Miguel may be seen two thousand feet below, there was built a beautiful little temple near a fine
intihuatana
, or sundial stone, ‘the place to which the sun was tied’, such as formed an important part of all temples of the sun. Remains of similar stones may be seen in Cuzco, Pisac, and Ollantaytambo. The top of a boulder was partly cut away, leaving near the centre a square upright pillar. The height of the pillar is a trifle over half a yard, thus making it the highest
intihuatana
stone found in Peru. The top shows slight evidence of fracture but there is no indication that this happened in recent years. Squier reported an
intihuatana
in Ollantaytambo of about the same height as having been destroyed by the Spaniards. It seems to be a generally accepted fact that the Spanish priests took pains to knock off the tops of the
intihuatana
stones wherever they were found. The fact that this one is intact practically adds further evidence to the failure of the ecclesiastical forces of the Viceroy Toledo to reach this site or even learn of its whereabouts.

Near this interesting and mysterious rock are the ruins of two attractive houses built, like the rest, of white granite blocks squared as nicely as could be done without the use of instruments of precision unknown to the builders, fitted absolutely together without clay, and bearing the marks of extreme attention to detail. Both of these small houses are marked by one curious feature. As originally planned they had handsome, though narrow, end doors; then the doors were filled up to two-thirds of the original height, leaving only windows. The best preserved house contains two fine niches and two windows. Both of the houses appear to have been originally a story and a half high with gable ends. They also have a peculiar feature common to a number of houses here in Machu Picchu in that, while the main portion of the wall is of stone laid without mortar, the gables above are of much rougher blocks, not carefully fitted together but laid in clay and possibly plastered over.

The south end of this hilltop has been rounded and roughly faced with stones, one of the larger of which has been curiously
carved so as to leave a lug with a vertical hole pierced through it. This may have been intended for a pole displaying a banner. The terraces below and around the hilltop are of rough stone faced nearly flat and laid in clay. On the south side thirteen terraces go down to the edge of the precipice. The hill itself is partly composed of huge, irregular blocks of granite. In many places where these overhang they have been propped up with stone walls, leading one to suppose that there might be graves within. Earlier excavators had been led to the same conclusion and, so far as I could judge, had encountered the same results, namely that
there was nothing behind the walls but earth and that the walls had been built chiefly to give a finished appearance to the rude boulders. Our excavations on this hill yielded very poor results. Probably it was used only for the most solemn services connected with tying the sun to the
intihuatana
. Tradition ascribes the reciting of poetical orisons to this worship.

Leaving the hilltop and going in a southerly direction, one descends several flights of stone stairs and approaches a little flattened space which we have termed, for want of a better name, the Sacred Plaza, because on two sides of it are the largest temples. Before reaching it one passes on the left a very singular boulder shaped more or less like a giant clam. Leading to the top are seven stairs cut in the soft disintegrating granite, and from the top one can get a charming view. Stones have also been fitted into the top of the boulder so as to form a little platform on which three or four persons could stand and salute the rising sun.

North of this boulder and below it are the walls of a little house, about 10 by 15 feet in diameter, built in the best workmanship of the finest Inca style, that is to say, with carefully cut, selected white granite blocks, many of them apparently rectangular. Some of the large ones are remarkably polygonal, but all are keyed together without cement. The lower course is of particularly large, fine ashlars about 4 feet in length and 2 feet in height; the upper tiers are smaller but all are symmetrical. On the left of the door as one enters this house is a single gigantic block cut so as to form the entire lower half of that part of the front wall. Not only were the lower portions of two of the niches with which this house is lined cut out of this stone but in a spirit of almost freakish ingenuity or playfulness the builders carved part of the corner of the room itself in this extraordinary block, so that it even forms a very small part of one of the end walls. In the palace of the Inca Rocca in Cuzco is a stone made famous by early Spanish writers because it had fourteen angles. Visitors always look at it. This stone has thirty-two angles!

The little building has another unusual feature – a long stone bench or couch extending the entire length of the house opposite the door. It is made of beautifully cut ashlars.

This house adjoins the principal temple, which has already been described. When I first saw it I was inclined to believe that it was the High Priest’s house but further study leads me to think it was a royal mausoleum and that the bench or couch was intended for the mummies of Inca emperors. It is certain that no pains were spared to make this little structure a gem of masonry. The building is lined with niches so nearly alike that the eye can scarcely detect any difference in shape or size. In the selection of the ashlars, in the finish of the blocks, in the proportions of the room, and in the artistic care with which it was built, it is among the very finest of ancient buildings. Others may equal it in beauty, but I know of none which surpasses it. It gives abundant evidence that here at Machu Picchu was one of the finest sanctuaries ever built by the Incas, or any other pre-historic Americans!

The Sanctuary of the Sun in Cuzco, in addition to containing the high altar and its appurtenances, held the mummies of the dead emperors of the Inca line. According to Juan de Betanzos, who lived in Cuzco in 1550, just after the Conquest of Peru, the mummies were seated on benches of wood beautifully carved. He says that the Inca Pachacutec arranged the dead emperors there in the presence of the image of the sun, but also ‘caused to be made many bundles, as many as there had been Lords who had succeeded Manco Ccapac down to his father, Inca Viracocha’.

It is quite possible, it seems to me, that some of the mummies that were represented in the Temple of the Sun in Cuzco by ‘bundles’ may have been really preserved at Machu Picchu.

The High Priest was nearly always an uncle or a brother of the reigning emperor. Under him were two classes of priests, those who performed the most solemn rites being always Incas by blood, and those who officiated in the less important ceremonies being Incas by privilege, that is members of the families of powerful nobles whom the Inca desired to honour.

It is significant that this little gem of a building is at the foot of the stairway going up to the
intihuatana
and actually adjoining the principal temple. The state religion of the Incas, worship of the Sun, was linked with the destinies and the administration of the empire in the closest intimacy.

The priests of the sun, were, of course, most highly favoured and it is not surprising to find the beautiful stone stairway which leads to the
intihuatana
the most carefully constructed of any at Machu Picchu. The steps are about 4 feet wide, yet each of them was made of a single block of granite. There is a low parapet on each side of this stairway. North of the royal mausoleum or high priest’s house, runs a walk, and a balustrade overlooking the beautiful valley and the river 2,000 feet immediately below.

Keyed into the ‘priest’s house’ and evidently built at the same time – for one of the lower stones forms a part of both edifices – is the Principal Temple, which had held me spellbound when I first saw it.

Its entire east wall appears to have settled nearly a foot, carrying with it a part of the north wall. It is not strange that this settling should have taken place, for the wall appears to have only a dirt foundation. So perfectly keyed together was it, however, that it has settled as a mass without disturbing the arrangement of the stones, except at the corner.

Perhaps the most marked peculiarity of this temple is that the ends of both the east and west sides are not perpendicular; nor do they have the customary inward slope characteristic of nearly all ancient Peruvian structures. As a matter of fact, they form an obtuse angle. The lower half of the angle is in each case the edge of the single Cyclopean member of the lowest course in the end walls, which slope inward towards the bottom. The upper half of the angle is formed of the six remaining courses, and slopes inward towards the top. The point of the angle contains a hole cut into the Cyclopean block of the lowest course, evidently intended to permit the admission of a large wooden beam which probably extended across the open front to the point of the angle in the front of the opposite end.

My first impression was that such a log would have been used
to support the roof of the structure, but the perfect finish of the top-most course leads me to believe that this building never had a roof, but that these holes supported the ends of a log which in turn supported a screen or curtain of the finest cloth, a superlatively beautiful textile. It could be removed when it was not needed. Such a device would have permitted the interior of the temple to have been constantly exposed to the sun while at the same time it was screened off from the view of anyone in the Sacred Plaza. If it were the place in which the mummies of the departed ancestors were brought for purposes of worship the presence of a roof would have been undesirable and would have interfered with the ceremony of giving the mummies a comfortable sun bath.

No pains were spared to make this unique structure conform to all that was best and most solid in the architecture of the Incas. Its builders had a remarkable sense of symmetry. They matched niche for niche and almost matched block for block. No building in Peru gives a finer impression of the high stage of art and architecture reached by the ancient people of the Andes. While there is no carving anywhere in the temple the sides of the largest Cyclopean block were cut in such a manner as to give the pleasing effect of three tiers of stones, more or less carrying out the lines of the regular courses of ashlars. The large altar stone at the back has two projecting lugs at the base. They are not alike, are not symmetrically placed, and may be merely projections left to assist the builders in prying the huge block into its proper place. It must weigh at least ten tons.