I'lioto by Hiram Bingham 

 ANOTHER MONOIvITHIC STAIRWAY : MACHU PICCHU 



In this case not only the steps of the stairway, but 

 also the balustrades, were cut out of a single stone. 

 Imagine the patience required to do this, when the only 

 tools at hand were hard cobble stones that had to be 

 brought up from the river 2,000 feet below. 



nil the danger of an attack on this side. 

 Difficult to reach at best, the city's de- 

 fenses were still further strengthened by 

 the construction of high, steep walls 

 wherever the precipices did not seem 

 absolutely impassable (see page 450). 



Inside the city the houses are crowded 

 close together, but an extensive system 

 of narrow streets and rock-hewn stair- 

 ways made intercommunication comfort- 

 able and easy. 



On entering the city, perhaps the first 

 characteristic that strikes one is that a 

 large majority of the houses were a 

 story and a half in height, with gable 

 ends, and that these gable ends are 



marked by cylindrical blocks pro- 

 jecting out from the house in 

 such a way as to suggest the 

 idea of the ends of the rafters. 

 The wooden rafters have all dis- 

 appeared, but the ring-stones to 

 which they were tied may still be 

 seen in some of the pictures, 

 notably that on page 455. 



These ring-stones consist of a 

 slab of granite, about 2 feet long 

 and 6 inches wide by 2 inches 

 thick, with a hole bored in one 

 end, and were set into the slop- 

 ing gable wall in such a way as 

 to be flush with the surface, al- 

 though the hole was readily ac- 

 cessible for lashing the beams of 

 the house to the steep pitch of 

 the gables. There were usually 

 four of these ring-stones on each 

 slope of the wall. Dr. Eaton 

 found this to be also a feature 

 of the Choqquequirau architec- 

 ture, only in that city the num- 

 ber of ring-stones is larger per 

 gable. 



A CITY OF STAIRWAYS 



The next most conspicuous 

 feature of Machu Picchu is the 

 quantity of stairways, there be- 

 ing over 100, large and small,, 

 within the city. Some of them 

 have more than 150 steps, while 

 others have but 3 or 4. In some 

 cases each step is a single block 

 of stone 3 or 4 feet wide. In 

 others the entire stairway — 6, 8,. 

 or 10 steps, as the case might 

 be — was cut out of a single 

 granite boulder (see pp. 451, 454, 457-9). 

 Again, the stairway would seem almost 

 fantastic, being so narrow and wedged 

 in between two boulders so close together 

 that it would have been impossible for 

 a fat man to use the stairway at all. In 

 no case were the stairways intended for 

 ornament. In every case they are useful 

 in getting to a location otherwise difficult 

 of access (page 458). 



The largest level space in the city was 

 carefully graded and terraced, so as to 

 be used for agricultural purposes, on the- 

 products of which the inhabitants could 

 fall back for a time in case of a siege. 

 It seems probable that one reason why- 





456 



