Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 1 (of 8): Aboriginal America
History
Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 1 (of 8): Aboriginal America
America -- Discovery and exploration; America -- History; United States -- History
long, still lies by the roadside.
[Illustration: TIAHUANACU RESTORED.
After a drawing given in _The Temple of the Andes_ by Richard Inwards
(London, 1884).]
The masonry of the ruins is admirably worked, according to the
testimony of all visitors. Squier says: “The stone itself is a dark and
exceedingly hard trachyte. It is faced with a precision that no skill
can excel. Its lines are perfectly drawn, and its right angles turned
with an accuracy that the most careful geometer could not surpass. I do
not believe there exists a better piece of stone-cutting, the material
considered, on this or the other continent.”
It is desirable to describe these ruins, and especially the sculpture
over the monolithic doorway, with some minuteness, because, with the
probable exception of the cromlechs, they are the most ancient, and,
without any exception, the most interesting that have been met with in
Peru. There is nothing elsewhere that at all resembles the sculpture on
the monolithic doorway at Tiahuanacu.[1150] The central figure, with
rows of kneeling worshippers on either side, all covered with symbolic
designs, represents, it may be conjectured, either the sovereign and
his vassals, or, more probably, the Deity, with representatives of all
the nations bowing down before him. The sculpture and the most ancient
traditions should throw light upon each other.
Further north there are other examples of prehistoric cyclopean
remains. Such is the great wall, with its “stone of 12 corners,”
in the Calle del Triunfo at Cuzco. Such is the famous fortress of
Cuzco, on the Sacsahuaman Hill. Such, too, are portions of the ruins
at Ollantay-tampu. Still farther north there are cyclopean ruins at
Concacha, at Huiñaque, and at Huaraz.
[Illustration: RUINS OF SACSAHUAMAN.
[After a cut in Ruge’s _Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen_.
Markham has elsewhere described these ruins,—_Cieza de Leon_, 259, 324;
2d part, 160; _Royal Commentaries of the Incas_, ii., with a plan,
reproduced in Vol. II. p. 521, and another plan of Cuzco, showing the
position of the fortress in its relations to the city. There are plans
and views in Squier’s _Peru_, ch. 23.—ED.]]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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