Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/109

Rh by the chief of Ayamarca. The third zone, further north, comprises the vast plain of Suriti or Ychupampa, and the plateau overlooking the sacred valley. From the crest of the Apurimac gorge the road leads up over the two pleasant valleys of Mollepata and Rimac-tampu, and then by a slight ascent to the great plain covered with grass and reeds, where there are occasionally swamps and morasses. This plain is surrounded by mountains; on their slopes are picturesque little towns, such as Suriti and Anta, and at its south-eastern end a ravine leads down, by Iscuchaca, to the city of Cuzco, about twelve miles distant. There are swamps, but there are also vast tracts of ychu or coarse grass, where the llama flocks of Anta find pasture. Towards the end of winter storms of thunder and lightning, with rain, pass rapidly over the plain. It is an indescribably grand sight to see these storms drifting across, with the sun shining behind them, and causing exquisite effects of light and shade, while snowy egrets and darker curlew whirl in circles over the swamps.

East of the Suriti plain, which is an ideal battlefield, there is a plateau overlooking the Vilcamayu valley. Here are the small towns of Maras and Chinchero, with cultivated patches round them, on the verge of the descent.

But the gem of the land of the Incas is the sacred valley, the 'valley' par excellence, as it was called. Rising in the sacred lake at the foot