Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/57

Rh the eastern face was exposed to easy approach, and here the great cyclopean work was constructed. It consists of three parallel walls, 330 yards in length each, with 21 advancing and retiring angles, so that at every point an attack could be enfiladed by defenders. The outer wall, at its salient angles, has stones of the following dimensions: 14 ft. high by 12; another, 10 ft. by 6. There must have been some good cause for the erection of this marvellous defensive work of which we know nothing. Its origin is as unknown as that of the Tiahuanacu ruins. The Incas knew nothing. Garcilasso refers to towers, walls, and gates built by the Incas, and even gives the names of the architects; but these were later defences built within the great cyclopean fortress. The outer lines must be attributed to the megalithic age. There is nothing of the kind which can be compared to them in any other part of the world. At Chavin, in the valley of the Marañon, there is cyclopean work, and also in Chachapoyas.

In seeking for indications of the megalithic age to be found in the elaborate carving of stones, we at once turn to the great monoliths at Concacha, near Abancay, and to the stone of Chavin. At Concacha the huge sacrificial stone is of limestone, about 20 ft. long by 14 by 12. It is carved in channels for leading away liquids, and in other 3em