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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



away. This may be taken at least as an 

 indication that soil was carried some- 

 times for long distances, and in such 

 cases it probably was transported on 

 pack animals. 



THE WATERING OF THE TERRACES 



Water was brought to the terraces from 

 the slopes above in artificial channels or 

 acequias leading down, often for many 

 miles, from the gorges of the high moun- 

 tains^ where they intercepted perennial 

 streams fed by the melting of the glaciers 

 and snow-fields (see page 504). Careful 

 provision was made to avoid erosion of 

 the soil or injury to the walls. 



Three different methods of bringing 

 the water down from one terrace to an- 

 other are to be seen about Ollantaytamb.o. 

 Some terraces have narrow vertical chan- 

 nels near the ends of the retaining walls. 

 Tn other banks of terraces the water was 

 brought down over large Upright stones 

 and caught in a basin below. 



The third method was to carry the 

 water down along the walls at the ends 

 of the terraces, which were set with dou- 

 ble rows of stones to form the water 

 channel between. 



Long banks of terraces are interrupted 

 at intervals by passageways that doubt- 

 less served the double purpose of roads 

 for reaching the terraces and of drainage 

 channels to bring down surface water 

 from the slopes above, and thus avoid 

 the danger of having the terraces washed 

 away by heavy rains. 



The handling of the water on the ter- 

 races undoubtedly was greatly facilitated 

 by the fact that the soils in all the ter- 

 raced districts are extremely tenacious 

 and not readily eroded. A few sods or a 

 small ridge of earth will hold in check a 

 stream of water, even with a swift cur- 

 rent. 



THEY PROCAl'.LY HAD SHOWER-BATHS 



A special feature in terrace watering 

 Avas indicated at Machu Picehu. where 

 man)- large stones, deeply grooved length- 

 wise, lie scattered along the terraces. 

 Such stones might have served as spouts 

 to carry the water out from the terrace 

 wall, and thus avoid still further the dan- 

 ger of erosion or undermining of 'he wall. 



The idea of. hanging gardens watered 

 by small streams or jets falling through 

 the air affords an attractive possibility in 

 the existence of the ancient people. Con- 

 ducting the water down over the terraces 

 in this way would afford ample shower- 

 bath facilities for the people who worked 

 on the terraces. Let us at least cherish 

 the hope that the so-called "baths" found 

 in the ruins of Machu Picehu and else- 

 where were not merely basins where 

 water was dipped up in jars, and that the 

 ancient people were not as deficient in 

 ideas of bodily cleanliness as their mod- 

 ern descendants. Ethnologists are fa- 

 miliar with the fact that the introduction 

 of European clothes has tended in many 

 countries to destroy habits of cleanliness 

 among primitive peoples. 



A LA XI (-STARVED PEOPLE ACCOMPLISH 

 THE INCREDIBLE 



Some of the most laborious terracing 

 is not on the steep slopes, where the ter- 

 races are high-walled and narrow, but in 

 the bottoms of the valleys, where the ter- 

 races are often very broad. The building 

 of broad terraces required more labor be- 

 cause it involved the filling and leveling 

 of much larger areas behind the walls. 

 Much of the work could have been avoid- 

 ed by making larger numbers of lower 

 and narrower terraces, but the walls 

 would have been more numerous and 

 would have occupied more of the surface. 



With labor very abundant and land 

 very scarce, the ancient engineers fol- 

 lowed the plan of making the terraces as 

 broad as possible, sometimes even to the 

 extent of 1 (ringing material and filling in 

 behind walls 15 or 20 feet high. Thus it 

 would be very conservative to estimate 

 that the building of the broad, valley- 

 bottom terraces involved the handling and 

 replacing of the earth for an average 

 depth of at least 6 feet over the entire 

 surface. This allows 3 feet for the sur- 

 face layer of fine soil and at least an 

 equal depth for the subsoil layer. 



The labor would depend, of -course, on 

 how far the material had to be carried. 

 Some of it may have been moved only a 

 few feet, some a few yards or rods, but 

 -1 line must have been brought for con- 

 siderable distances, as when areas of cul- 



