Evening star., 1934-09-23
wooden roofs.


gether q solution OF the mystery of the virgin
refugees.
THIS city, known as Naehu Picchu, was t,,s
FIRST capital of the Inca empire and buik
shout the year 1000. Surrounded three
sides BY precipices and guarded on the fourth
by stout wall, the city proved impregnabls
for three centuries to hostile attacks. Bue
not to the increase Of It's own population. The
number OF Incas living here 50 outgrew the
mnexible city limits. that the rulers decides
to abandon Machu Picchu completely and
establish Q new capital, Cuzco, 50 miles away,
where there would be room to expand.
And all this came to pass The angel-built
citadel, lost In the clouds 5000 feet above the
Dea and 1000 above the surrounding river, was
left desolate The Incas with all their ad-
vAnced culture, never learned to write. So NJ
written records Of the old capital could be pre-
served-only legends handed down from one
generation 10 another.
But after 700 years the legends faded, untf
Machu Picchu. at the time Of the Spanish con-
quest, was unknown to the Incas them-
selves No, not quite unknown. A few menu
bers OF the clergy had not forgotten. Each
bishop told his succeeding bishop of the secret
OF the old abandoned capital just in case the
temple officials or the sun virgins some day
had to flee to safety.
That some day" accompanied by 165 super
natural white-sdnned f1ends from across the
ocean, had arrived. The sun virgins were the
goal Of these demons unholy lust-and the
demons were at the very gates Of the temple.
Hurriedly, frentically the 100 young girls,
almost beside themselves with terror, were
narshaled by q secret passage out Of the temple
Enclosure, away from the white savages, over
the Andean crest and down into the Urubamba
Canyon where hidden on the mountain top.
. half mile above, security awaited them. Fear
Of pursuit gave wings TO their climbing. In
single fle these gentle maids struggled up the
naomtainside, destroying, IS best they could.
their path behind them.
At length they reached the summit to find
. complete stone city, complete even to the
massive Sun Temple, and q sun dial on the
tiptop point waiting to be Feoccupied. And
from that day, living in constant terror Of the
Spaniards these young vestas never DARED 10
descApd even to the valley. Pisarro was dead.
But how could they know this or know that
the first Spanish tidal wave had ebbed, leavin9
Cusco in ruins, their Sun Temple despoiled.
the sun god dettroned by q crucif1x and tn
exile? HOY could they know that they had
been almost forgotten in the general agony Of
the times and were still hiding from threat
that no longer existed?
These were the facts learned in Cuzco. !
was all ready now to visit the Virgins Citadel.
narrow gauge railroad took me down the
Urubamba Gorge and close to the foot of the
citadel cliff. From here followed the zig
gag path up the terrific precipice, slipping and
clutching, for 1000 feet. The summit was just
ahead. I reached the first great stone stairs.
Here was an Inca building-then another
and another - dozens - hundreds cleaning,
flooded flawless granite, rising tier on tier
toward the climax of the ridge. On up through
the dazzling maze-across the sacred plaza
past the granite temple-up the winding granite
stairs to the sun dial on the tiptop of the
peak-on to the sun dial-to the edge of the
appalling chasm that fell sheer 1000 feet BE-
low-the edge from which could see the copper
sun sinking into the glaciers of far-off cloud
capped world, and hear the voice of the tenn
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