Vol. XIX, No. 10 



WASHINGTON 



October, 1908 



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CUZCO, AMERICA'S ANCIENT MECCA 



By Harriet Chalmers Adams 



Author of "Along the Old Inca Highway," "Wonderful Sights in 

 the Andean Highlands," etc. 



WE all have a Mecca. It is New 

 York, for One ; for another, 

 Paris. Some people long to 

 reach the Holy Land. Since childhood I 

 had journeyed in my dreams on the long 

 pilgrimage to Cuzco, and when I at last 

 found myself in the Andean country, on 

 that portion of the old Inca highway 

 stretching from Lake Titicaca to the 

 "City of the Sun," I knew that dreams 

 sometimes come true. 



Through legendary and historical lore, 

 I recalled the many wayfarers who had 

 gone before me — Manco Capac and 

 Mama Occla, his wife, missionaries of the 

 Sun, on their way to found the Sacred 

 City ; Inca Emperors, returning from 

 conquests far to the east and south ; 

 Spanish conquistador es, bearing the 

 sword and the cross ; brave warriors of 

 the revolutionary days when Peru threw 

 off the Spanish yoke ; countless soldiers 

 of the civil wars ; and, in contrast to 

 these pageants, the simple, unchanging 

 mountaineers, driving townward their 

 laden llamas, bowing their heads in wor- 

 ship of Cuzco the Sacred, as their Mecca 

 came into view. The last link in that 

 branch of the Southern Railway of Peru 

 which will connect Cuzco with the coast 



is nearing completion, but I am glad that 

 I entered Cuzco in the old way. For 

 hundreds of years it has been the goal of 

 the Andean people, who still journey 

 miles on foot over the bleak highlands to 

 reach its shrines and its mart. 



Come and stand with me on the hill of 

 Sacsahuaman, overshadowing the city, 

 and look down through my Memory's 

 field-glass. The old town, you see, lies 

 just at our feet at one end of an oblong 

 valley bordered by treeless mountains — a 

 golden valley with cultivated patches on 

 the hillsides shading into brown. This 

 is the central vale in a group of fertile 

 highland basins eleven thousand feet 

 above the sea, sheltered by mountain, 

 walls from the bitter wind which sweeps 

 along , the elevated table-land of Peru. 

 Situated in thejdieart of the former Inca 

 Empire, "Cuzco" signifies "navel" or 

 "center" in ; Quichua, the indigenous 

 tongue. 



The buildings, you notice, are Moorish 

 in architecture, with slanting roofs of 

 weather-stained reddish-brown tile. The 

 paved courts which they encompass and 

 the carved wooden balconies overhanging 

 the narrow streets are typical of the 

 Colonial period. Those open spaces 



