338 



SOUTH AMERICA— THE ANDES REGIONS. 



Cuzco. 



This old religious metropolis, " City of the Sun," has overgrown its ancient 

 limits, which were indicated on the right and left by two torrents descending 

 south-eastwards in the direction of the Vilcanota. The towers of the Inca 

 enclosures have disappeared, and new quarters have sprung up beyond the two 

 watercourses. In Inca times Cuzco comprised four distinct quarters, named from 

 the four points of the compass, and in each, separate dwellings were set apart for 

 the Indians according to their northern, southern, eastern or western origin. In 

 the interior of the city the foundations of the houses present solid and broad 



Fig. 131.— Cuzco. 

 Scale 1 : 20,000. 



West ot" breenwich 



72-4- 



875 Yards. 



stone walls, as if built for fortresses, while the light superstructure with its red- 

 tiled roof reveals its modern origin. Most of the temples and palaces still survive 

 m analogous form, serving as foundations to the present churches, convents, 

 warehouses and private mansions. These old structures were concentrated 

 especially along the banks of the Huatanay, or western torrent, and here the 

 observer admires the wonderful accuracy with which these undressed cyclopic 

 blocks were put together. Formerly many of the houses were decorated with 

 plates of gold both on the inner and outer surfaces. 



On one side of the great square stands the cathedral, a Spanish structure in bad 

 .taste, but prodigiously rich in the interior, as if to efface the memory of the old 



