Ruin at Titicaca.
The cut represents a ruin on the Island of Titicaca in the lake of the same name. These island remains are among the oldest of Peruvian antiquities, and all the structures are built of hewn stone. Respecting these ruins we only learn from the explorers that "though not very imposing" they are well preserved, "with windows and doors, with posts and thresholds of hewn stone also, these being wider below than above." Another ruin on the same island is shown in the cut on the following page.
At Chavin de Huanta the structures are built of hewn stone very accurately joined without any mortar in sight on the outside, and a rubble of rough stones and clay on the inside. In a building spoken of as a fortress there is a covered way with rooms at its sides, all covered with sandstone blocks about twelve feet long. The walls are six feet thick, and in the interior is the opening to a subterranean passage which is said to lead under the river to another building. In the gallery human bones and some relics were found. The modern town is built mostly over the ruins of an ancient aqueduct, and a bridge over the stream is built of three immense stones, each over twenty feet long, taken from the fort. The ancient people were especially skillful in the construction of aqueducts, some of which were reported by the early writers as several hundred miles in length, and a few of which of less extent are still in actual use.
RUINS OF HUANUCO.
El Mirador—Huanuco.
Ruins at Titicaca.