Beyond Los Nazarenes the street narrowed until presently it became simply a path in a rocky gorge. As we entered the gorge there was at first little to be seen. Then in its narrowest and most easily defended part we came suddenly upon a pile of massive rocks, roughly hewn. Huge blocks of stone, five or six feet high, slightly rounded off and accurately fitted together, are here built into a gateway twelve feet high that opens into a passage defended by a wall of large boulders. This leads to the hilltop. On the side toward the city, the slope is nearly precipitous, but the approach was made even more difficult near the summit by a series of three terraces each twelve or fourteen feet high. There is nothing remarkable about the summit except the beautiful view of Cuzco which one gets from here.
The immediate front of the hill just below the upper terraces is extremely steep. About half-way down to the city the spur broadens and flattens out. It was there the first Inca built his palace. On the lower continuation of this spur, between two rivulets, the palaces and temples of the later Incas were built.
It is the north side of Sacsahuaman, the side away from Cuzco, that is the chief object of interest. Here the slope is very gentle and it was necessary to fortify the place artificially. Furthermore, it was on this side that attacks might be expected, not only from the savages of the Amazonian wilds, but also from the hostile tribes of the Andean plateau, including the Caras of Ecuador. Accordingly, here the Incas exerted their utmost skill in the construction of a powerful line of defence.
The fortifications extend for a third of a mile entirely across the back of the hill, and are flanked by steep valleys at each end. They consist of three lines of zigzag terraces, one above another, each faced with walls of colossal boulders, some of them twelve feet in diameter. The lower terrace has an average height of about twenty-five feet; the middle and upper ones are some six feet less. There are few sights in the world more impressive than these Cyclopean walls.
The Incas were accustomed to build great terraces and I have seen them in many places in Peru. In every other case, however, the terrace walls are straight, or nearly so. Here, although the walls are parallel, they are also zigzag and consist for the entire length of salients and reëntrant angles. The apex of each salient in the lower wall is usually formed by a conspicuously large block, twenty-five feet high and ten or twelve feet thick.
The size and strength of the walls and the employment of salients which enabled the defenders to cover the entire face of the fortification with a flanking fire, a device unknown even to the European Crusaders, made the Inca fortress practically impregnable. It was certainly quite secure from the assaults of any Indian assailants, armed only with such primitive weapons as bows and arrows, slings and spears.
Next to the colossal size of the stones which the builders used for the lower wall, the most impressive thing is the care they took to fit the stones together without cement, so that they should stand for ages.
It is said that most of the smaller stones have been carried off for building purposes in the city. Be this as it may, what remains is the most impressive spectacle of man’s handiwork that I have ever seen in America. Photographs absolutely fail to
