Note 460 — Chapter XCIV

Next to the fortress of Cuzco, the ruins at Tambo or Ollantay-tambo, in the valley of Yucay, are the most astonishing in Peru. They are built at a point where the valley is only about a league in width, covered with maize fields, with the broad and rapid river flowing through the centre. The dark mountains rise up almost perpendicularly on either side to such a stupendous height that but a narrow portion of blue sky smiles down upon the peaceful scene between them. A ravine, called Marca-ccocha, descends from the bleak punas of the Andes to the valley of Yucay at this point, and at the junction two lofty masses of rock rise up abruptly in dark and frowning majesty. The fortress of Tambo is built on the rock which forms the western portal to the ravine. The rock is a dark limestone, the lower part of which, to the south and east, is faced with masonry composed of small stones. At a height of about 300 feet there is a platform covered with a ruin apparently left in an unfinished state. Here there are six enormous slabs of granite, standing upright, and united by smaller pieces fitted between them. Each slab is 12 feet high, and at their bases there are other blocks of the same material, in one place formed into a commencement of a wall. This spot appears to have been intended as the principal part of the citadel. In the rear, and built up the steep sides of the mountains, there are several edifices of small stones plastered over with a yellow mud. They have gables at either end, and apertures for doors and windows. Still further to the east, a flank wall of the same material rises up from the valley to near the summit of the mountain, which is very steep and rocky, and indeed difficult of ascent. Immediately below the principal platform there are a succession of stone terraces. The upper one is entered at the side by a handsome doorway with an enormous granite lintel. The wall is built of polygonal-shaped blocks, fitting exactly into each other, and contains eight recesses, two feet two inches high by one broad and one deep. When the inner sides of these recesses are tapped with the fingers, a peculiar metallic ringing sound is produced. In front of the terraces there a series of well-constructed andeneria, or hanging gardens, sixteen deep, all faced with masonry, which descend into the ravine. On the opposite side of these andeneria the mountain rises perpendicularly, and terminates in a dizzy peak, where there is a huge block of stone called the Ynti-huatana, or place for observing the sun.

The most astonishing circumstance connected with these ruins is the distance from which the stones which compose them have been conveyed. The huge blocks of granite of enormous dimensions rest upon a limestone rock, and the nearest granite quarry is at a distance of six miles, and on the other side of the river. On the road to this quarry there are two stones which never reached their destination. They are known as the Saycusca-rumicuna or “tired stones.” One of them is 9 ft. 8 in. long and 7 ft. 8 in. broad; with a groove round it, three inches deep, apparently for passing a rope. The other is 20 ft. 4 in. long, 15 ft. 2 in. broad, and 3 ft. 6 in. deep.

At the foot of the rock on which the fortress is built there are several ancient buildings. Here is the Mañay raccay or “court of petitions,” sixty paces square, and surrounded by buildings of gravel and plaster, which open on the court by doorways twelve feet high, surmounted by enormous granite lintels. On the western side of the ravine of Marca-ccocha, opposite the fortress, there is another mass of rock towering up perpendicularly, and ending in a sharp peak. It is called the Pinculluna (“Place of Flutes”). Half-way up, on a rocky ledge very difficult of approach, there are some buildings which tradition says were used as a convent of virgins of the sun. They consist of three long chambers separated from each other but close together, and rising one behind the other up the declivitous side of the mountain. They are each twenty-eight paces long, with a door at each end, and six windows on each side. There are steep gables at each end about eighteen feet high, and the doors have stone lintels. There may have been six cells, according to the number of windows, making eighteen in all. On one side of these buildings there are three terraces on which the doors open, which probably supplied the inmates with vegetable food and flowers, and whence they might view one of nature’s loveliest scenes, the tranquil fertile valley, with its noble river, and mountains fringed with tiers of cultivated terraces.

About a hundred yards beyond the edge of these convent gardens the Pinculluna becomes quite perpendicular, and forms a yawning precipice eight hundred feet high, descending sheer down into the valley. This was used as the Huarcuna or place of execution, and there is a small building, like a martello tower, at its verge, whence the victims were hurled into eternity.

For an account of the tradition connected with the building of Ollantay-tambo, and of the Quichua drama which is founded on it, see my work, Cuzco and Lima, pp. 172 to 188.

The authors of the Antiguedades Peruanas believe these ruins to be anterior to those of Cuzco.