CHOQQUEQUIRAU
The next morning we began at once to take measurements and get what
pictures we could. We found that the ruins were clustered in several
groups both on terraces and natural shelves, reached by winding paths or
stairways. Some buildings were long and narrow and of one story; others
of a story and a half with tall gables. The buildings were placed close
together, probably in order to economize all the available space. It is
likely that every square yard that could be given to agriculture was
cultivated.
Magnificent precipices guard the ruins on every side and render
Choqquequirau virtually inaccessible to an enemy. Every avenue of
ascent, except such as the engineers determined to leave open, was
closed, and every strategic spot was elaborately fortified. Wherever it
might have been possible for a bold mountaineer to gain a foothold, the
Incas had built well-faced walls of stone so as to leave an adventurous
assailant no support. The terraces thus made served the double purpose
of military defence and of keeping the soil from sliding away from the
gardens down the steep hillside.
As may be seen from the map, the ruins consist of three distinct groups
of buildings.
All had been more or less completely hidden by trees and vines during
the centuries of solitude. Fortunately for us the treasure-seeking
company had done excellent work in clearing away from the more important
buildings the tangled mass of vegetation that had formerly covered them.
Dynamite had also been used in various likely spots where treasure might
have been buried. But the workmen had found no gold and only a few
objects of interest including, besides those we saw at Abancay, a few
clay pots and two or three grinding stones of a pattern still in use in
this part of the Andes and as far north as Panama.
At the top of the southern and outer precipice, five thousand eight
hundred feet immediately above the river, stands a parapet and the walls
of two buildings without windows. The view from here, both up and down
the valley of the Apurimac, surpasses the possibilities of language for
adequate description. The photograph gives but the faintest idea of its
beauty and grandeur. Far down the gigantic cañon one catches little
glimpses of the Apurimac, a white stream shut in between guardian
mountains, so narrowed by the distance that it seems like a mere
brooklet. Here and there through the valley are marvellous cataracts,
one of which, two thousand feet high, has a clear fall of over one
thousand feet. The panorama in every direction is wonderful in variety,
contrast, beauty, and grandeur.
North of this outer group of buildings is an artificially truncated
hill. It is probable that on this flattened hilltop, which commands a
magnificent
[Illustration: BUILT OF STONES LAID IN CLAY]
[Illustration: THE PARTY WALL RISES TO THE PEAK]
view up and down the valley, signal fires could be built to telegraph to
the heights overlooking Cuzco, intelligence of the approach of an enemy
from the Amazonian wilds.
We noticed on this hilltop that small stones had been set into the
ground, in straight lines crossing and recrossing at right angles as
though to make a pattern. So much of it was covered by grass, however,
that we did not have a chance to sketch it in the time at our disposal.
North of the lookout and on the saddle between it and the main ridge is
located the main group of ruins: a rude fortification fifteen feet high,
running across the little ridge from one precipitous slope to the other;
a long one-story building of uncertain use in which curious carved stone
rings are set into the walls in such a manner as to serve possibly for
the detention of prisoners; a long one-story building that might have
been a grand hall or place of meeting, whose walls are surrounded with
numerous niches; and a block of story-and-a-half houses whose gabled
ends are still standing. The use of gables was almost universal in the
central and southern part of the land of the Incas.
These double buildings stand transversely to the general line of the
edifices and have a middle or party-wall exactly dividing the gable. It
rises to the peak of the structure and once doubtless supported the
upper ends of the rafters. These houses bear a striking resemblance to
one of the Inca buildings at Ollantaytambo described by Squier[4] in
the following words: “It is a story and a half high, built of rough
stones laid in clay, and originally stuccoed, with a central wall
reaching to the apex of the gables, dividing it into two apartments of
equal size.... There seems to have been no access to the upper story
from the interior, but there are two entrances to it through one of the
gables, where four flat projecting stones seem to have supported a kind
of balcony or platform, reached probably by ladders.” This description
fits these structures almost exactly. There are other resemblances
between Choqquequirau and the Inca fortresses visited and described by
Mr. Squier. In fact, one might use many a sentence from his accounts of
Pisac and Ollantaytambo that would adequately describe Choqquequirau and
its surroundings. Like the buildings of Ollantaytambo, these are nearly
perfect, lacking only the roof.
The two-story houses had an exterior measurement of 42 by 38 feet.
Similar ones measured by Squier near the temple of Viracocha north of
Lake Titicaca, were also divided into two equal apartments and measured
46 by 38 feet. The fronts of each building have two entrances and the
interior of every apartment is ornamented with irregular niches within
which some of the stucco still remains. The walls are irregular but
usually about three feet thick, and are composed of unhewn fragments of
lava cemented together with a stiff clay.
In general, all the walls appear to have been built entirely of stone
and clay. The construction, compared with that of the Inca palaces in
Cuzco, is
[Illustration:
GENERAL PLAN
OF
LOWER PLAZA
CHOOQUEQUIRAU
]
extremely rude and rough and no two niches or doors are exactly alike.
Occasionally the lintels of the doors were made of timber, the builders
not having taken the trouble to provide stones wide enough for the
purpose. One such lintel was still standing, the wood being of a
remarkably hard texture.
Probably the ruins to-day present a more striking appearance than they
did when they were covered with thatched roofs.
Ornamental niches which constitute a characteristic and constant feature
in Inca architecture appear on the interior of all the Choqquequirau
buildings and on the exterior of a few. Some of those on the outside are
of the re-entering variety. Those on the inside are of two kinds. The
larger ones about five feet high reach to the floors of the apartments
and are mere closets, as it were, without doors, being slightly wider at
the bottom, about thirty-four inches, than at the top, about
twenty-eight inches, and of varying depth, thirteen to sixteen inches. A
second line, smaller and not reaching to the ground, is also found in
several of the structures. There is good evidence that some of the walls
were faced with stucco and possibly painted in colors. In the case of
one wall that had been partly pushed out of the perpendicular by the
action of time, several of the niches retained almost entirely their
coating of stucco, and so did some of the more protected portions of the
wall.
Almost the only ornamentation which the houses contained besides the
ever-present niches, were cylindrical blocks of stone about three inches
in diameter projecting twelve or fourteen inches from the wall seven
feet above the ground between each niche.
In one of the niches I found a small stone whirlbob of a spindle-wheel,
in size and shape like those made from wood and used to-day all over the
Andes by Indian women. This simple spinning apparatus consists of a
stick about as large as the little finger and from ten to twelve inches
long. Its lower end is fitted with a whirlbob of wood to give it proper
momentum when it is set in motion by a twirl of the forefinger and thumb
grasping the upper end of the spindle. It is in universal use by Indian
women from the Andes of Colombia to those of Chile, and one rarely sees
a woman tending sheep or walking along the high road who is not busily
engaged in using this old-fashioned spindle. In the tombs of Pachacamac
near Lima have been found spindles still fitted with similar whirlbobs
of stone.
The third group of buildings is higher up on the spur, a hundred feet or
more above the second group. Near the path from the lower to the upper
plaza are the remains of a little _azequia_ or watercourse, now dry,
lined with flat stones. The southeast corner of the third group is
marked by a huge projecting rock twenty feet high and twelve or fifteen
feet in diameter. Beside it, facing the eastern slope, is a giant
stairway. It consists of fourteen great steps roughly made and of
varying dimensions. They average about fifteen feet wide, with risers
four and a half feet high and treads about six and a half feet deep. It
is possible to ascend these stairs by means of small stone steps erected
on one
[Illustration: THE BUILDINGS NEAR THE OUTER PRECIPICE]
[Illustration: THE UPPER SIX STEPS OF THE GIANT STAIRWAY]
end or the other of the giant step. Walls on each side, two feet wide,
serve as a balustrade. A peculiarity of the construction is the locating
of a huge flat stone in the centre of the riser of each step. The view
to the eastward from this stairway is particularly fine. Perhaps the
rising sun, chief divinity of the Incas, was worshipped here.
Beyond the stairway are terraces, alley-ways, walls, and
story-and-a-half houses, filled with niches and windows. The length of
the first terrace is slightly over two hundred feet and its height is
twelve feet. The second terrace above it has a height of ten feet and a
length of one hundred and twenty-nine feet. Above these are two long
alley-ways or halls with niches in their walls and windows looking out
over the terraces. These halls are five feet wide. Back of these are
buildings resembling in their construction those in the lower group.
They also are decorated with irregular niches and cylindrical stone
projections. Under these houses, however, there ran a small passage-way
or drain twelve inches wide and ten inches deep. These two houses,
although roughly built, were as nearly the same size as possible.
Between them ran a narrow passage-way leading to a back alley. This was
curiously paved with slabs of slate half an inch thick. Back of this is
another hall five and a half feet wide with windows in front and niches
on the rear, or hill, side.
The gables of the upper group are steeper than those of the lower group
and are in fact quite as pointed as those seen in Dutch cities. The two
gable buildings of the upper group stand on the slope of the hill in
such a manner that there is no gable on the side nearest the declivity.
In other words, they are only half the size of the double houses below.
Nearly all of these houses have two or three small, rude windows. A
narrow stone stairway leads from the back alley to a terrace above. This
opens out into the upper plaza on which are several buildings that
overlook the western precipices. Two of the houses have no windows and
one of them contains three cells. The Peruvians said they were used for
the detention of prisoners. They were more likely storehouses. On the
north side of the plaza is a curious little structure built with the
utmost care and containing many niches and nooks. It may possibly have
been for the detention of so-called “virgins of the sun” or have been
the place in which criminals, destined to be thrown over the precipice,
according to the laws of the Incas, awaited their doom. The plan gives a
good idea of its irregular construction.
Above it the hillside rises steeply, and on the crest of the ridge runs
a little conduit which we followed until it entered the impenetrable
tropical jungle at the foot of a steep hill. The water in this little
_azequia_, now dry, coming straight down the spur, was conducted over a
terrace into two well-paved tanks on the north side of the plaza. Thence
it ran across the plaza to a little reservoir or bath-house on the south
side. This was ten feet long by five feet wide with low walls not over
five feet high and had on its north side a small stone basin let down
into the floor two feet by three in such a manner as to
[Illustration:
GENERAL PLAN
OF
UPPER PLAZA AND GIANT STAIRWAY
CHOQQUEQUIRAU
Drawn by C. W. Drysdale from Measurements and Photographs taken Feb. 7,
8, 9, 10, 1909 by Dr. HIRAM BINGHAM and CLARENCE HAY Esq.]
catch the water that flowed over the edge of the wall. A small outlet
had been provided at the end of this basin so that the water could flow
underneath the floor of the bathroom or tank house and then proceed on
its way down the ridge to the buildings below.
As the western slope of the Choqquequirau spur is a sheer precipice,
little attempt at fortification was made on that side. The eastern
slope, however, is not so steep. On this side it was necessary to build
enormous terraces hundreds of feet long faced with perpendicular walls
twelve feet wide. Two narrow paved stairways lead from one terrace to
another.
Near one of the terraces I picked up either a _bola_ or a hammerstone
nearly as large as my fist.
In the jungle immediately below the last terrace, under ledges and huge
boulders, were dug little caves in which the bones of the dead were
placed. I found that the bones were heaped in a little pile as though
they had been cleaned before being interred. No earth had been placed on
them, but on top of the little pile in one grave I found a small
earthen-ware jar about one inch in diameter. It had no handles and was
not closed at the top although the opening, a quarter of an inch in
diameter, had been fitted with a specially well-made perforated cap.
There was nothing in the jar, although it had retained its upright
position during all the years of its interment. The natural entrance to
the little tomb had been walled up with wedge-shaped stones from the
inside in such a way as to make it extremely difficult to enter the
cave from the front. I found, however, that by digging away a little on
one side of the huge boulder, I could easily remove the stones which had
evidently been placed there by the grave-digger after the bones had been
deposited in the tomb.
The workmen had excavated under a dozen or more of the projecting ledges
and in each case had found bones and occasionally shreds of pottery. In
no case, however, had they found anything of value to indicate that the
dead were of high degree. Probably they were common soldiers and
servants. If any of the officers of the garrison or Inca nobles were
ever buried in this vicinity, their tombs have not yet been discovered,
or else the graves were rifled years ago. But of this there is no
evidence.
All the conspicuously large rocks below the terraces have been found to
cover graves. The skulls were not found alone but always near the
remainder of the skeleton. The larger bones were in fairly good
condition but the smallest ones had completely disintegrated.
Nevertheless, ribs were frequently met with. Some of the largest bones
could be crumbled with the fingers and easily broken, while others were
very hard and seemed to be extremely well preserved. Some skulls
likewise were decayed and could be easily crushed with the fingers while
others were white and hard; all that we found were those of adults,
although one or two of them seemed to be of persons not over twenty
years of age. So far as has been observed, no superincumbent soil was
placed on the skeleton.
[Illustration: 1. A Hawaiian. 2-4. Skulls from Choqquequirau. 5. A
Flat-head Indian.
6. Bola found at Choqquequirau. 7. Whirl-bob.
8. Jar found in a grave, Choqquequirau.]
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF A BUILDING AT CHOQQUEQUIRAU]
The Quichua Indian carriers and workmen watched our operations with
interest, but they became positively frightened when we began the
careful measurement and examination of the bones. They had been in doubt
as to the object of our expedition up to that point, but all doubts then
vanished and they decided we had come there to commune with the spirits
of the departed Incas.
As a rule, the evidence of deformation of the skull was slight in a
majority of the specimens examined. Nevertheless one had been much
flattened behind and another extremely so in front. There was no
evidence of any having been trephined or of any decorative patterns
having been made on any part of either skulls or bones. Three of the
skulls are now in the Peabody Museum in New Haven, with the other
articles I found here.
On the steep hillside southeast of the terraces and graves, we found
many less important ruins, completely covered by the forest. Were it
possible to clear away all the rich tropical growth that has been
allowed to accumulate for centuries, one would undoubtedly find that
there is not a point which is not somehow commanded or protected by a
maze of outworks. No clearing or path having been constructed in order
to enable them to be seen, we could not form an adequate idea of their
extent. There seemed to be, however, no limit to the ruins of the huts
where lived the private soldiers and the servants of the garrison. One
hall measured 75 by 25 feet while another was 30 by 10, and it is
entirely possible that there are others that have not yet been located,
so dense is the jungle.
On the opposite side of the valley are the ruins of Incahuasy, near
Tambobamba, which have been described by M. Charles Wiener.[5] So far as
I can judge from the drawings he gives of one of the “palaces,” the
construction is very similar to that used at Choqquequirau.
I believe that Incahuasy and Choqquequirau were originally frontier
fortresses that defended the valley of the Apurimac, one of the natural
approaches to Cuzco, from the Amazonian wilds. A glance at the map will
show that Pisac and Paucartambo, northeast of Cuzco, with Ollantaytambo
to the north and Choqquequirau to the west form a complete line of
defence. Each is located in one of the valleys by which the unconquered
Indians of the great forest could attack the sacred capital of the
Incas. The Incas were never able to extend their empire far into the
forests that covered the eastern slopes of the Andes or the valleys of
the rivers that flow toward the Amazon. They did, however, push their
empire down the valleys until they encountered the savage inhabitants of
these wild forests, savage Chunchas or Antis, who with their poisoned
arrows and their woodcraft were well able to protect themselves. The
Incas were obliged to stop short when they reached the thick forests.
The massive and complicated fortresses of Paucartambo, Pisac, and
Ollantaytambo marked the extent of their sway. There were undoubtedly
several less important outlying
[Illustration: CUZCO AND NEIGHBORING FORTRESSES]
fortresses lower down the rivers, situated in such a way as to be able
to prevent the incursions of small parties of wild savages and give
notice of any large expeditions that might attempt to march on Cuzco.
They were so placed as to be practically impregnable. Choqquequirau was
evidently one of these.
I fear that no amount of dynamite will ever disclose at Choqquequirau a
“Cradle of Gold” or any articles of great value. It was not a temple or
a treasure house, but a fortress where life was strenuous. The officers
of its garrison were not likely to bring with them gold ornaments or
utensils, and the poor Incas had few such baubles left at the end of
their career.
Why then should it have been called the “Cradle of Gold?” One answer is
that the ridge or spur on which Choqquequirau lies, when seen from a
distance, looks not unlike a hammock. The setting sun often tinges it
with gold and the romantic Incas might easily have named Choqquequirau
from its resemblance to the only cradles with which they were familiar.
The other answer is that the name, which does not occur in any of the
chronicles, so far as I have been able to discover, is a modern
invention. In one of the buildings we found several slabs of slate on
which visitors have been accustomed to register their names. According
to these inscriptions Choqquequirau was visited in 1834 by a French
explorer M. Eugène de Sartiges, and in July, 1834, by two Peruvians,
José Maria de Tejada and Marcelino Leon, who may have come with de
Sartiges.
Charles Wiener, in his very unreliable but highly interesting “Perou et
Bolivie” (Paris, 1880), says (footnote, p. 294) that Choqquequirau has
also been visited by another Frenchman, “M. Angrand whose MS. notes,
with plans and drawings, were bequeathed to the Bibliothèque Nationale
in Paris.” I find they are merely hastily-drawn sketches. One, a
route-map, is dated “30 7bre,” [1847]. Angrand’s name does not appear on
any of the slates.
Besides de Sartiges, and the two Peruvians already mentioned, the slate
records show that in 1861, on the 10th of November, José Benigno Samanez
(“pro Presidente Castilla”) Juan Manuel Rivas Plata, and Mariano
Cisneros reached the ruins. Also that on July 4, 1885, Luis E. Almanza,
J. Antonio Almanza, Emiliano Almanza, Pio Mogrovejo and a party of
workmen did what they could to find the buried treasure. So much for the
existing evidence of former visitors.
M. de Sartiges, writing under the nom de plume E. de Lavandais,
published an account of his visit in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, in
June, 1850. His route, the only one possible at the time, was
exceedingly circuitous. From Mollepata, a village near the sugar
plantation of La Estrella, he went north across the high pass between
Mts. Sargantay and Soray to the river Urubamba, to a village called
Yuatquinia (Huadquiña [?]). He engaged Indians to cut a trail to
Choqquequirau. After three weeks he found that the difficulties of
making a trail were so great that it would take at least two months to
finish the undertaking, so he and his companions made their way through
the jungle and along the precipices as best they could for four days. On
the fifth day they arrived at the ruins. In his projects for
exploration, he had failed to take into account the fact that tropical
vegetation had been at work for centuries covering up the remains of the
Inca civilization, and as he was only able to stay at Choqquequirau for
two or three days, he failed to see some of the most interesting ruins.
The giant stairway and the buildings on the upper plaza seem to have
escaped his attention entirely. He was greatly impressed with the
fortifications on the south side of the lower plaza and speaks of them
as though they formed a triumphal wall (“_mur triomphal_”). He seems to
have spent most of his time hunting for treasure behind this wall. He
had expected to spend eight days here, but the difficulties of reaching
the place were so great and the food-supply was so limited that he had
to hurry back without seeing more than the buildings of the lower plaza,
the lower terraces, and a grave or two. It was his opinion that fifteen
thousand people lived here once. One wonders what they lived on.
M. de Sartiges’s description made us realize how much we were indebted
to the labors of the treasure-seeking company for penetrating the jungle
and uncovering buildings whose presence otherwise would never have been
suspected.
Raimondi says that in 1862, Don Juan Gastelu, a Peruvian traveller, left
Ayacucho in an effort to go up the valley of the Apurimac in a canoe,
hoping in this way to reach the ancient fortress. After seven days of
perilous navigation, he gave up the attempt long before reaching its
vicinity.
The interesting question remains: Was this the ultimate refuge of the
last Inca?
It is reasonably certain that Manco Ccapac, the last emperor, fleeing
from the wrath of the conquerors, took refuge in a place called
“Vilcabamba.” There is a village of that name, two or three days journey
over the mountains north of Choqquequirau, on the Vilcabamba River, an
affluent of the Urubamba. It has never been explored so far as I know.
Peruvian writers like Paz Soldan and the great geographer, Raimondi, are
positive that Manco Ccapac’s “Vilcabamba” was really Choqquequirau. They
base their belief on the fact that in 1566 an Augustinian Friar, Marcos
Garcia, undertook to penetrate to “Vilcabamba,” where poor old Manco
Ccapac had found a refuge. In describing his tour, Father Calancha, the
author of the “Chronica moralizada del Orden de San Augustin, Libro III,
Cap. XXIV and XLII,” says that Garcia founded a church in Pucyura, “two
long days’ journey from Vilcabamba.” Raimondi calls attention to the
fact that Pucyura is only two leagues from the present village of
“Vilcabamba,” and while he admits that it is possible that Father
Calancha wrote “_days’_ journey” instead of “_leagues_” by mistake, he
believes that the reference is to Choqquequirau which is in fact two
long days’ journey from Pucyura. It is at least a very roundabout method
of inference.[6]
Raimondi may be correct, but until some one shall have explored the
present village of Vilcabamba and its vicinity, I am inclined to the
opinion that Choqquequirau was merely a fortress.
* * * * *
Since writing the above I have received, through the kindness of Prof.
Roland Dixon of Harvard University, a copy of a pamphlet by the
distinguished Peruvian historian, Carlos A. Romero, entitled “Las Ruinas
de Choqquequirau,” which gives the result of his careful researches
through all the works of writers who refer to Choqquequirau. It does not
add to our actual knowledge of the early history of the ruins.