The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1879-03-05
ANCIENT WORKS OF PERU.
Cyclopean Achievements and Gigan-
tic Monuments Of a Lost
Civilization.
The wondrOus Ruins OF a Mysterious
People Graphically Described.
scientific American. !

scientific Americana
The feats of modern engineering in Peru
are unexcelled in this age of ambitious I'M
dertakings; yet they are more than sur
passed, on their own ground. by works that
have been abandoned, if not in ruins, for
untold centuries.
DR., T.. R. Heath furnishes an amount OF
detail on this point that will surprise even
those generally familiar with the fact that
Peru was once densely populated by people
given to cyclopean undertakings. Only
few can be cited here; but these will suffice
to show that nothing of modern times, not
even our thousands of miles OF railways and
canals, can begin to rival the achievements
of those mysterious people who have passed
away, leaving only these gigantic monu-
nents to tell of their capacity and power.
Ruins, some OF them of enormous extent,
are scattered along the entire coast line of
Peru. distance OF ,23s miles, while nearly
every hill and spur OF the mountains have
on it, or about it, some relic of the past; and
in every ravine from the coast to the central
plateau, there are ruins of walls, fortresses,
cities, burial places, and miles aud miles of
terraces and artificial water courses Across
the plateau and down the eastern slope OF
tine Andes, into the unexplor-
ed, almost impentrable forest, still
they are found, mutely testifying to
the successive empires that rose. hourished,
and decayed where the desert and wilder
ness now prevail. Even more imposing are
the vestiges of human wealth and power
n MI n
habitable for their altitude and the severity
of the climate. Here the explorer finds
cyclopean structures OF granite, porphyry,
and other rocks, which have resisted the
disintegration Of time, geological transform
atoms, earthquake shocks, and the destructive
hands of warriors and treasure seekers. The
masonry composing these walls, temples,
houses, towers, fortresses, or sepulchers, DIR.
Heath remarks, is uncemented, held in place
by the incline of the wall and the adaptation
Of each stone to its place, the stones having
from six to many sides, each dressed and
smoothed to fit its neighbor with such ex-
actness that the blade of o small penknife
can not be inserted in any of the seams,
whether in the central parts entirely hidden,
or on the internal or external surfaces.
These stone, selected with no
reference to uniformity in shape or
size, vary from one-half cubic foot
to 800 cubic feet solid contents, and if in
the many millions OF stones one could be
found to fit the place OF another il would be
purely accidental. In the wall of the center
of the Cuzco fortress there are stones ID feet
high, 10 feet long. and feet thick, and were
all quarried miles away.
At Tiahuaanaco q few miles south of Lake
Titicaca, there are stones in the form of col
umns, partly dressed, placed on line al
certain distances from each other, and hav
ing an elevation above the ground of from
Is to 20 feet. In the same line there is q
monolithic doorway, now broken, 10 feet
high and Is wide. The space cut out for the
door IS seven feet four inches high, by three
feet two inches wide. The whole face Of
the stone above the door is engraved. An
other. similar but smaller. lies on the ground
beside it. These stones are of hard por
phyry, and differ from the surrounding
rock.
At Quelap some extensive works have
been lately examined. Here IS found a wal
of dresses stone, $50 feet wide, $500 fee
long, and l50 feet high. The lower part i:
solid. Above this is another wall, 600 fee
long, 500 feet wide, and the same height a
the other. $50 feet. Over both walls ar,
nicnes, 3 feet long, and IL feet wide ant
deep, containing remains of those ancien
Inhabitants, some naked, others envelope,
in shawls of cotton of distinct col
legs are doubled so that the knees toucl
the chin and the arms are wound about tn
legs. The wall has three uncovered door:
the right side of each being semi circular
the left side angular. From the base al
inclined plane ascends almost insensi bl-
the $50 feet OF elevation, having about mid
way q sentry box OF stone. In the uppe
part there is an ingenious hiding place @
dressed stone, having upon it place for a
outlook, from which great portion of tn
l., l.
of the second and higher wall, there al
other sepuichers like small ovens, six fee
high and "a in circumference; in their has
are flags upon which mummies reposeG
On the perpendicular, rocky side of th
mountain on the north side is brick wa
having snail windows 600 feet from til
bottom. No reason for this, nor means {
approach can now be found. The sklllfr
construction of utensils of gold and silve
that were found here, and the ingenuity an
solidity of this gigantic work of dresse
stone, are reasons for assigning it pre-Inc'
date.
Imposing as structures of this sort ar
they are, after all, but secondary in CON
parison with the industrial labors of the al
cient Peruvians. The density of the popl
lation and the nature of the country-prol
ably also the gradual desiccation of the n
gion by geological changes-made it nece
sary to terrace the sides of the mountain
and ravines for cultivation. Estimating sc
ravines IN the 200 miles OF Peru, and
miles of terraces of 50 tiers to each ravin
which would be only five miles
25 tiers to each side. there woul
be in this region 100000 miles
stone wall, averaging from three to TO.
feet high, or enough to encircle our glot
10 times. Surprising as these estimates ms
seem, DR.. Heath is convinced that actu
measurement would more than doub
them, for these ravines vary from 80 to II
miles in length, and 10 miles of terracing
each is low estimate. At San Mateo,
town in the valley of the river Rimac,
miles from the coast where the mountain
rise from 1, 500 to 2 900 feet above the rive
he counted 200 tiers, none of which were lie
than four, and many were more than 81
miles long. Even at four miles, there wou
be at that point alone 800 miles of stol