Note 375 — Chapter LXXII

The ruins of Pachacamac are about twenty miles south of Lima, on the sea-coast. The temple was on the summit of a hill about four hundred feet above the sea, and half a mile from the beach. The view from the platform, where the temple once stood, is exceedingly striking. Half the horizon is occupied by the ocean, and the other half is divided into two widely different scenes. One is an arid desert, with no object on which the eye can rest save the ruined city; the other is a lovely valley, covered with fields of maize and sugar cane, and dotted with houses half hidden by the encircling fruit gardens. The little town of Lurin stands in its centre. A narrow stream separates this enchanting valley from the dreary expanse of sand, while the glorious Andes bound the inland view.

The upper part of the temple hill is artificially formed of huge adobes or bricks baked in the sun, rising in three broad terraces, the walls of which are thirty-two feet high. Towards the sea the terraces are supported by buttresses of ordinary sized sun-dried bricks, and the red paint, with which the walls were originally coated, may still be seen in several places. The temple stood on a level platform on the top, facing the sea. The door is said to have been of gold plates, richly inlaid with coral and precious stones, but the interior was rendered filthy by the sacrifices. Garcilasso says that the Yunca Indians had idols in the form of fish and other animals, and that they sacrificed animals, and even the blood of men and women; but that these idols were destroyed by the Yncas.

At the foot of the temple hill are the remains of houses for pilgrims; and it is here that the numerous skulls are found, with long flowing hair, which are to be met with in European museums. Further on are the ruins of an extensive city. The streets are very narrow, and the principal houses or palaces generally consist of halls of grand proportions, with a number of small apartments at each end: all now choked with sand. The foundations are frequently of stone.

It is said by some old writers that this temple was erected for the worship of Pachacamac—the Supreme Being, the “Creator of the world”—by an ancient race, long before the time of the Yncas, and of whom the Yunca Indians were degenerate descendants. Its great antiquity is proved by the fact that, when Hernando Pizarro first arrived at it, a considerable portion of the city was already in ruins.