Note 447 — Chapter XCI

The original name of this plain appears to have been Yahuar-pampa (field of blood), so called in memory of the bloody battle between the army of Ynca Huira-ccocha and the allied tribes led by Anco-hualluc. In the days of the Spanish conquest it was known by the name of Xaquixaguana (Cieza de Leon and Zarate) or Sacsahuana (G. de la Vega); here the Ynca general Challcuchima was cruelly burnt to death by Pizarro, and here the President Gasca defeated and executed Gonzalo Pizarro and Carbajal. It is now generally called the plain of Surite, from a village of that name at its north-western corner.

The plain of Surite is a few leagues west of Cuzco, on the road to Lima, at a sufficient elevation to be within the region of occasional frosts, and is surrounded by mountains, up which the ancient andeneria or terraced fields, now left to ruin, may be seen rising tier above tier. The plain is swampy and covered with rank grass, and would be difficult to cross, if it were not for the causeway, built by order of the Yncas, and accurately described by Cieza de Leon, which is still in good preservation. This causeway is of stone, raised about six feet above the plain, and perfectly straight for a distance of two leagues. At the end of the causeway is the little village of Yscu-chaca.