Lost City of the Incas (Phoenix Press) (34 page)

On the west side of the plaza is a semicircular bastion about 10 feet in diameter and 8 feet high. It overlooks the valley of the Urubamba and is the highest of a flight of fine terraces which extend down to the edge of the cliffs. The bastion is made of large granite blocks cut to form a nearly perfect semicircle. This type of remarkable stone-cutting is another evidence of the very great age of the Inca civilization. Architects tell me that such skill in building a graceful circular tower is not arrived at easily or early in the history of this art.

On the south side of the plaza is a large rectangular building,
of typical late Inca construction, built of small, roughly finished stones laid in adobe, having two doors, and no windows. Its inner walls were lined with symmetrically placed niches, the whole forming obviously an important residence but one which would have required only a few weeks or months to construct. It is quite possible that this was built after the flight of Manco from Cuzco, at the time when this ancient sanctuary had to be enlarged to receive the priests and other attendants of the last Inca and the Chosen Women who sought refuge here in the days of Pizarro.

On the opposite and eastern end of the plaza are the ruins of the most significant building of all, the Temple of the Three Windows.

The walls of this temple, like those of the Principal Temple, are on three sides only, the fourth side being left open to the Sacred Plaza with the exception of a unique monolithic pillar intended to support the front roof-plate of the building, a device not found in any other building in the city. The building had a gable roof, the stones in the end of the gable being larger than customary but nevertheless laid in clay instead of fitted together. As in the Principal Temple, Cyclopean blocks were employed in the lower course and the ends of the side walls form an obtuse angle instead of being perpendicular. Similarly, the point of each angle contains a cavity, evidently intended here to permit the admission of the end of a roof-plate. The top of the monolithic pillar, located halfway between these two cavities, was notched.

In order to build this structure the architect was obliged to construct a foundation for the eastern wall down to the level of the next terrace. To do this, he used four large stones and built a wall which rises 11 feet from the terrace to the level of a window sill. The sill of each window forms part of a Cyclopean polygonal block. The walls of the temple are of massive blocks, some of them irregular, but all of them of well-selected white granite, beautifully worked. The granite could have been quarried in the immediate vicinity.

The highest of the fountains is in a remarkable group which should be called the Group of the Temple of the Sun itself, as its principal building bears a striking resemblance to the well-known Temple of the Sun in Cuzco.

This was the first really fine building seen on my original visit. At that time I could not see all the wall adjoining the semicircular temple. After we had scrubbed the wall clean we discovered that the most experienced master mason of his time had here constructed the most beautiful wall in America, built in the form of a try-square, and connecting the temple with what may have been a priest’s house.

The effect is softer and more pleasing, if less splendid, than that of the marble temples of the Old World. Here we have an example of the remarkable ability of the Inca architects. Since this wall was obviously built with the utmost care by an artist who desired it to be a permanent object of beauty, it was necessary that there should be no cracks in it, that the seams between the closely fitting ashlars should never open. Yet at the south end of the wall was the priest’s dwelling, a two-story-and-a-half house, its second floor opening on to the terrace which supported the Beautiful Wall, its lower floor opening on to the next terrace below. In the course of time such a house, whose attic was entirely above the level of the Beautiful Wall, would tend to lean away from the wall, and the seams would open. Consequently, the stonemason ingeniously keyed the ashlars together at the point where the greatest strain would occur, by altering the pattern from one which is virtually rectangular to one containing hookstones, thus making a series of keys which would prevent the ashlars from slipping and keep the house from leaning away from the ornamental wall. The result was successful. Although this is a land where earthquakes are not uncommon and the builders used neither cement nor metal clamp, each ashlar still fits snugly into its neighbours and there is no place where a pin could be inserted between the stones. They fit together and hold as tightly as a glass stopper fits into a glass
bottle. Friction and an absolutely perfect fit does the trick.

The uppermost part of the great rock on which the semicircular building rests is carved into seats or stone platforms. It was probably an altar on which were placed offerings, or a place of sacrifice for burnt offerings.

When subject to great heat the surface of granite boulders flakes off in shells round the point where the greatest heat strikes the stone. An examination of the top of this rock, which occupies most of the space within the Semicircular Temple, shows that at some time or other a really extraordinary amount of heat must have been applied. Total absence of ashes or pieces of charcoal indicate that this took place a very long time ago, probably long before the advent of the first modern Indians. It is difficult to account for all the flaking which has taken place unless it was caused by repeated fires or by one in which the fuel was often replenished, and it is impossible to believe that the damage was done by burning an ordinary thatched roof. Were it not that the
upper courses of the Temple seem to indicate the former presence of a roof one might suppose that this had been verily a place of burnt offerings.

In this temple are three windows. Two of them look out over the valley; each is about two feet in height. They are decorated with four nubbins, one at each end of lintel and sill. These may have been supports on which were hung the gold ornaments associated with Sun Temples. There are no others like them.

The third window in the Semicircular Temple is larger than the others and offers much food for thought and speculation. It is what archaeologists commonly call ‘problematical’. Its beautiful monolithic lintel was cracked by the heat of fires long before our visit, and part of it has fallen, further evidence that it was no small conflagration that so ravaged the temple. The sill of this window is most unusual, broken as it is by two flights of steps, facing each other. These steps contain a little labyrinth of holes and very small passages or channels less than an inch in diameter, which lead to cavities cut out of the blocks in the interior of the wall. The openings of these channels vary in size; some are 2 inches in diameter. Other similar holes lead nowhere, and some of the passages have less conspicuous openings. In the Cuzco Temple of the Sun, now the Dominican Monastery, I noticed holes similar to these. They are in a portion of the wall which cannot be further examined. It is possible that the holes were intended to facilitate the exhibition of gold plaques or sun ornaments which, according to the early writers, were displayed in the Temple of the Sun.

We learn from Sarmiento, the conquistador, in his history of the Incas, that he was told by the wise natives whom he consulted with regard to their traditions, that ‘as Pachacutec Yupanqui was curious about the things of antiquity and wished to perpetuate his name, the Inca went personally to the hill of Tampu-tocco or Paccari-tampu, names for the same thing, and entered the cave whence it is held for certain that Manco Ccapac and his brethren came when they marched to Cuzco for the first time … After he had made a thorough inspection, he venerated the locality and showed his feelings by festivals and sacrifices.
He placed doors of gold on the window Ccapac-tocco, and ordered that from that time forward the locality should be venerated by all, making it a prayer place and
huaca
, whither to pray for oracles and to sacrifice. Having done this the Inca returned to Cuzco.’

There is no evidence that Sarmiento ever went to Paccari-tampu. We did, but we could find no ruins there that answer to the description of this highly venerated place. On the other hand the window where the gold doors were placed might easily have been this ceremonial window in the semicircular temple at Machu Picchu.

This is one of the reasons why I believe that the ‘Lost City of the Incas’ was originally called Tampu-tocco, as I shall explain in a later chapter.

In view of the similarities between the semicircular temple and the famous Temple of the Sun in Cuzco, it is interesting to note here that the great golden image of the Sun which had been one of the chief ornaments of the temple in Cuzco was probably kept here at Machu Picchu after Manco escaped from Cuzco. It was in the possession of his son, Tupac Amaru, the last Inca Emperor, who lived here during his young manhood, and it was captured from him by the Viceroy Toledo, who sent it to Philip II with the suggestion that the King send it to the Pope. The chances are that that golden image was once displayed here and may have been hung from the ‘problematical’ window. When Tupac Amaru had to flee down into the
montaña
, he took it with him among other valuable gold ornaments, which Francisco de Toledo was only too pleased to seize and send to King Philip as being of that ‘noteworthy quality’ desired by his monarch.

There are two gateways to the compound which includes the Temple of the Sun. The inner one is a beautiful specimen of stonework and seems to have had a stone roof. Its bar-holds are integral parts of the stone blocks of the gateway, being cut into the surface of the ashlars. This group is further distinguished by containing the only house in the city consisting of two-and-a-half stories. Its gable end is of rough stones laid in adobe. This is
characteristic of every structure that was undoubtedly roofed. No matter how fine the walls of a house, that portion of the wall which would come immediately under the eaves and the gable ends is never nicely fitted together but always laid in adobe. This may have been to facilitate fastening the rafters to the wall, or it may have been due to the fact that originally houses did not have gable ends. They may have been added by later tenants. I do not remember seeing a single Inca gable in the city of Cuzco, although they are common in Ollantaytambo and other places.

Our excavations in this group yielded practically nothing, but on the terraces just below the old rubbish piles contained pieces of more than two hundred jars. A few had been thrown over into the dry moat. Not a house in the three groups contained a thing; evidently the former owners were good housekeepers and insisted on broken pots being taken away to the rubbish piles.

Across the great stairway from the semicircular Temple of the Sun is a compound which I have called the King’s Group because of the extremely solid character of the walls which enclose it, and also because it seems as though no one but a king could have insisted on having the lintels of his doorways made of solid blocks of granite each weighing about three tons. In the other compounds the houses almost invariably have duolithic lintels, not too heavy to be lifted into place by two men. But in this group the owner had sufficient manpower to overcome the mechanical difficulties involved in placing a monolithic 3-ton lintel on top of his doorposts and fitting it accurately to them. Even had he possessed cranes, pulleys, and steam winches, he would have found it no easy task. Since he had none of these things, he must have built up a solid inclined plane side by side with the wall as it rose so that the workmen could raise the heavy lintels with levers. What a prodigious amount of patient effort had to be employed! Altogether the artistic workmanship is superb and must be seen to be appreciated. My photographs do not do it justice.

The door of the King’s compound is close to the highest of the fountains, so that his retainers would never have any difficulty in filling their jars with fresh water. There are no windows in these royal houses. There were none of the dreaded ‘night draughts which cause illness’. We can easily imagine that the houses were fitted with luxurious rugs of
vicuña
wool as well as the finest blankets and robes that the most skilful of the Chosen Women could weave for the Inca’s personal use.

The gables of the houses in this group are also unusually steep. Even heavy tropical downpours would not leak through such steep roofs. No buildings in Machu Picchu except the temple opposite have such fine walls as these.