Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/324

286 High above the city, of which there is an extensive view bounded by the snowy peak of Vilcañota, and at the foot of the precipitous ascent to the fortress, is the small open space before the little church of San Cristoval. On the north side was the palace. On a terrace with a stone revetment, one may still see a wall built of stones of various sizes fitting exactly one into the other. It is seventy-four yards long and sixteen feet high. In this wall there are eight recesses at equal distances, resembling doorways. They are too shallow to be used for shelter—only two and a half inches. They could not have been used as doors, for this wall is a revetment. One only is a doorway. They are not likely to have been merely ornamental. I think that these recesses contained sacred or royal emblems of some kind. The point is interesting, as there are exactly the same walls at the palaces of Chinchero, Limatambo, and Yucay.  The third recess from the west is a doorway leading to a steep narrow staircase. Above there is a platform, now a maize-field, on a level with the top of the recessed wall, once a garden leading to and fronting the palace itself. The remains of the palace are now of very small extent. They consist of a wall of admirably worked masonry forty feet long and ten and a half feet high. The stones are beautifully cut in perfect parallelograms, all of the same height but varying in length, fitting exactly one to the other. The wall contains a doorway and a window. The sides of the doorway support 