Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/185

Rh the mountain side. They stand endways, twelve feet high, united by small smooth pieces fitted between them. At their bases there are other blocks of huge dimensions, one fifteen feet long. I believe this to have been the great hall of the fortified palace of Ollantay. A stone staircase leads down to a small plateau, which was another part of the interior.

Immediately below these plateaux there is a very remarkable terrace, with a wall of polygonal stones fitting exactly into each other, the lower course formed of blocks of immense size. In the wall there are nine recesses, 2 ft. 2 ins. high by 1 ft. 4 ins. by 1 ft. 1 in. deep, to hold the household gods. At the further end the terrace is approached by a handsome doorway with a monolithic lintel, the side of immense stones sloping slightly inwards. A long staircase, hewn out of the solid rock, leads down. This doorway and terrace were the chief entrance and vestibule of the palace. Below the terrace there is a succession of well-constructed andeneria, or cultivated terraces, sixteen deep, descending to the valley. They would have supplied the garrison with provisions.

Beyond the second plateau, which I believe to have been an interior, there is an open space which formed a court in front of the palace, and extended to the brink of a precipice which is partly revetted with masonry, whence there is a lovely view over the valleys. High up, above the palace, was the Inti-huatana, or circle and pillar for observing the