Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/601

Rh Btv. II. Ch. III. HOUSE OF THE VIRGINS OF THE SUN. 585 and is divided into twelve small sqixare rooms on the ground-floor, and as many similar rooms above them. Several of these chambers were surrounded by others, and those that had no doors externally had no openings like windows (except one with two slits in the upper story); and they must have been as dark as dungeons, xxnless the upper ones were lighted from the roof, which is by no means improb- able. The most striking architectural features they possess are the doorways, which exactly resemble the Etruscan, both in shape and mode of decoration. We are able in this case to rely upon the accu- racy of the representation, so that there can be no doubt of the close similarity. .' <ViT" 1011. House of the Virgins of the Sun. (From a Sketch by J. B. Pentland.) Another building on the island of Coata, in the sacred Lake of Titicaca, is raised on five low terraces, and surrounds three sides of a courtyard, its principal decoration being a range of doorways, some of them false ones, constructed with upright jambs, but contracted at the top by projecting courses of masonry, like inverted stairs, in this instance, however, only imitative, as the building is of rubble. The masonry of the principal tomb represented in the Woodcut No. 1012 may be taken as a fair specimen of the middle style of masonry ; less rude than that of the house of Manco Capac, but less l>erfect than that of many subsequent examples. It is square in plan — a rare form for a tomb in any part of the world — and flat-roofed. The sepulchral chamber occupies the base, and is covered by a floor, above which is the only opening. The other tomb in the background is likewise square, but differs from the first in being of better masonry,