INCA FORTRESS WALL, SACSAHUAMAN
The gigantic size of the stones and the precision with which they are fitted, without mortar, bear testimony to the engineering genius of the Inca megalithic builders
The Titicaca myth, however, does not receive as much consideration today as the Tampu-tocco (täm´-poo-tok´-ko) myth. The former is characterized by the late Sir Clements Markham as an obvious invention to account for the ancient ruins and statues in the vicinity of Tiahuanaco (tee-ä-wane-ä´-ko), and on the islands of Titicaca and Koati (ko-ä´-tee). “It has no historical value,” he says, “while the Tampu-tocco myth is as certainly the outcome of a real tradition, and is the fabulous version of a distant historical event.”
CUZCO, PERU
PALACE OF THE INCA ROCCA
A large gravure picture of this massive structure will be found in The Mentor (No. 132) on “Peru”
The story is somewhat as follows. At a distance from Cuzco is a place called “Tampu-tocco” (“House of the Windows”). This was long considered to be identical with “Paccari-tampu” (päk´-kä-ree-tam´-poo) (“House of the Dawn”), but the explorations and study of Dr. Bingham have shown that the evidence is in favor of his statement that Machu Picchu is Tampu-tocco. From this locality, at a date placed by students somewhere between 950 B. C. and 200 A. D., came four brothers accompanied by four sisters. Their leader, Manco (män´-ko) (the princely), succeeded in making away with his three brothers, so that at length, on their arrival at Cuzco, where the golden rod which this Manco also carried sank into the ground, the first Inca and his sisters were able to found their kingdom without rivals. Under the leadership of Manco and his successors, sometimes known as “Pre-Megaliths,” the empire grew. In the seventeenth or nineteenth reign a change in dynasty took place, and thenceforth the megalithic monarchs, who were often distinguished and skilful astrologers and reformers, ruled with the title of Amauta (ä-mä-oo´-tä).
About 450 A. D. came the end of this dynasty. Pachacuti (pä-chä-koo´-tee) VI, a ruler of peoples on the east, south and west and subject tribes, had risen in revolt. The invaders ultimately retired, but the power of Cuzco was broken, and the ruler slain. The city was left to the priests, and the inhabitants, under a new sovereign, took refuge at Tampu-tocco, where some twenty-four princes ruled in succession. At length, when the provinces once under the control of the princes of Cuzco had relapsed into barbarism, a woman of high birth named Siyu-yacu (see´-yoo-yä´-koo), contrived a plot to place on the throne one who would initiate a bold attempt to recover the power once possessed by their forefathers. The individual selected was Siyu-yacu’s own son, Rocca (rok´-kä). The plot was successful, and Rocca, later known as Sinchi Rocca (seen´-chee rok´-kä) or the Great Rocca, was the first of the Inca sovereigns whose reign looms up clearly enough to remove it from the realm of traditions and give it a place, although slightly hazy, in history. From the accession of Rocca to the throne, about 1100 A. D., down to the murder of Tupac Amaru (too´-päk ä´-mä-roo) in 1671 by the Viceroy Francisco de Toledo (frän-sees´-ko day to-lay-do), the course of events is fairly well authenticated. It is to this period that a discussion of the Incas must necessarily be confined.