Peruvian antiquities / by Mariano Edward Rivero and John James von Tschudi ; translated by Francis L. Hawks.

  • Mariano Eduardo de Rivero y Ustariz
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Peruvian antiquities / by Mariano Edward Rivero and John James von Tschudi ; translated by Francis L. Hawks. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tainbos, or inca-pilca. Some of these edifices are found pro- vided with fortifications; others present in their arrange- ments baths, with conduits of warm water ; in fine, the larger ones were designed for the family of the sovereign himself. At the foot of the volcano Cotopaxi, near to Callo, I mea- sured and made designs of some of these habitations, so well preserved, which Pedro de Cie^a, in the sixteenth century, called the apartments of Mulado. , In the pass of the Andes, be- tween Mansi and Loxa, called Paramo de Assuay, at fourteen thousand five hundred and sixty-eight feet of height, (a road much frequented on the side of Cadlud, almost of the same altitude as Mont Blanc) we found on the* plain of Puttal much difficulty in making a way for the mules over a marshy piece of earth, while, for more than a German mile, our sight continually rested on the superb remains of a paved road of the Incas, twenty feet wide, which we marked resting on its deep foundations, and paved with well-cut, dark por- phyritic stone. This road was wonderful, and does not fall behind the most imposing Eoman ways which I have seen in France, Spain and Italy. By barometrical observation, I found that this colossal work was at an elevation of twelve thousand, four hundred and forty feet, which exceeds, by more than a thousand feet, the height of the Peak of Tene- riffe. At this same level there are found at Assuay the ruins of the palace of Inca Tupac-Yupanqui, known under the name of the ‘ Paredones del Pica.' From here the road goes toward the south in the direction of Cuenca, and ends at Canar, a small fortress in good preservation, which pro- bably goes back to the times of the Inca above named, or to those of his warlike son, Iluayna-Capac.” “We have also seen most beautiful remains of ancient Peruvian roads between Loxa and the river Amazon, near the baths of the Incas, in the Paramo [desert or open place]
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