242 TELE RAVINE OF THE SUN. 



edifices surrounding the inclosuiv showed that there was 

 room enough to lodge the small army which generally 

 accompanied the Incas on these journeys. What was 

 curious about the Fortress of Cannar was the form of its 

 roof, which gave it the appearance of a European house. 

 As one of the first historians of America, Pedro de Cieca 

 de Leon, who began to describe his travels in 1541, 

 says that several similar houses, which he examined in 

 the province of Los Canares, were covered with rushes 

 this roof was probably added after the conquest of Peru 

 by the Spaniards. 



Leaving the Fortress of Cannar, the travellers came to 

 a valley hollowed out by the river Gulan. Here they 

 found small foot-paths cut in the rock. These paths led 

 to a fissure, which the ancient Peruvians called the 

 Ravine of the Sun. In this solitary spot, shaded by 

 beautiful and luxuriant vegetation, the travellers saw an 

 isolated mass of sandstone, twelve or fifteen feet high. One 

 side of this rock was remarkable for its whiteness: it was 

 cut perpendicularly as if it had been worked by the 

 hand of man. On this smooth white ground were several 

 concentric circles, representing the image of the sun. 

 They were of a blackish brown, and in the space they 

 inclosed were features, half effaced, that indicated two 

 eyes and a mouth. Examining these circles closely 

 Humboldt found that they were small veins of iron ore, 

 common in every formation of sandstone. The features 

 indicating the eyes and mouth, which were evidently 

 made by some metallic tool, were probably added by the 

 Peruvian priests to impose upon the people. When the 

 Spaniards conquered the country, it was to the interest 

 of the missionaries to efface them, and it was accord- 



