LIII.
TUPAC INCA MAKES THE FORTRESS OF CUZCO.
After Tupac Inca Yupanqui had visited all the empire and had come to Cuzco where he was served and adored, being for the time idle, he remembered that his father Pachacuti had called the city of Cuzco the lion city. He said that the tail was where the two rivers unite which flow through it[112], that the body was the great square and the houses round it, and that the head was wanting. It would be for some son of his to put it on. The Inca discussed this question with the orejones, who said that the best head would be to make a fortress on a high plateau to the north of the city.
[Note 112: This district of Cuzco has always been called Pumap chupan or tail of the puma.]
This being settled, the Inca sent to all the provinces, to order the tucuricos to supply a large number of people for the work of the fortress. Having come, the workmen were divided into parties, each one having its duties and officers. Thus some brought stones, others worked them, others placed them. The diligence was such that in a few years, the great fortress of Cuzco was built, sumptuous, exceedingly strong, of rough stone, a thing most admirable to look upon. The buildings within it were of small worked stone, so beautiful that, if it had not been seen, it would not be believed how strong and beautiful it was. What makes it still more worthy of admiration is that they did not possess tools to work the stone, but could only work with other stones. This fortress was intact until the time of the differences between Pizarro and Almagro, after which they began to dismantle it, to build with its stones the houses of Spaniards in Cuzco, which are at the foot of the fortress. Great regret is felt by those who see the ruins. When it was finished, the Inca made many store houses round Cuzco for provisions and clothing, against times of necessity and of war; which was a measure of great importance[113].
[Note 113: This fortress of Cuzco, on the Sacsahuaman Hill, was well described by Cieza de Leon and in greater detail by Garcilasso de la Vega, ii. pp. 305—318. Both ascribe it to Inca Yupanqui or his son Tupac Inca, as does Sarmiento. The extensive edifices, built of masonry of his period, were no doubt the work of Tupac Inca who thus got credit for the whole. These later edifices were pulled down by the Spaniards, for material for building their houses in the city. But the wonderful cyclopean work that remains is certainly of much more ancient date, and must be assigned, like Tiahuanacu, to the far distant age of the monolithic empire.]