In the days of the Incas the two great families of Azangaro, whose heads ranked as Curacas, were the Murumallcucalcinas and Chuquihuancas; and they retained the office of cacique until recent Spanish times. The Murumallcucalcina family is now extinct: they lived in the town, and a portion of their house still remains, called the _Sondor-huasi_, dating from the time of the Incas, and the greatest curiosity in the place. It is a circular building, about twelve feet in diameter, with walls twelve feet high, of mud and straw, very strong and thick. The dome-shaped roof of thatch also dates from the time of the Incas. The outside coating consists of a layer of _stipa ychu_, two feet thick, placed in very regular rows, and most carefully finished, so as to present a smooth surface to the weather. Next there is a thick layer of the same grass placed horizontally, netted together with reeds; and finally an inner perpendicular layer; the whole thatch being five feet thick. The interior framework consists of twelve perfect circles of bent wands, with others descending in curves from the apex of the roof to the crest of the wall, and where they cross there are lashings of a tough reed. The whole is finished with most admirable neatness, forming a perfect dome. This is the only roof of the time of the Incas still remaining in Peru, and hence its great importance in an antiquarian point of view. It has been said that the colossal and highly-finished masonry of the Incas, and their poor thatched roofs, formed a barbaric contrast; but the Sondor-huasi proves that their roofs rivalled their walls in the exquisite art and neatness of their finish. The Sondor-huasi is now in a very dilapidated state, and is used as a kitchen by the degenerate collateral heirs of the old caciques.