must have been vastly larger than we now see them. Before I proceed to a
further account of Tiaguanico, I must remark that this monument is the most
ancient in Peru: for it is supposed that some of these structures were built long
before the dominion o f the Incas, and I have heard the Indians affirm that these
sovereigns constructed their great buildings in Cuzco after the plan of the walls of
Tiaguanico, and they add that the first Incas were accustomed to hold their court
in this place. Another very curious fact is, that in the greater part of this territory
there are no quarries nor rocks whence the materials for these structures could
have been derived. I asked the natives, in the presence of Juan de Varagas, (who
commands here,) if these edifices were built in the time of the InCas ? But they
laughed at the question, repeating what I have already stated, adding that they did
not know who built them, hut that they had a tradition of their ancestors that
these structures appeared in a single night as we now see them.”*
These statements, and many others to the same purpose, are confirmed by
the Vicar-general, Diego de AlcobaZa, who also visited Tiaguanico, and has left
an account of the architectural wonders he saw there.f
It will he observed by the preceding narrative, that tradition among the
Peruvians attributed these cyclopean structures to an era long antecedent to the
appearance of the Incas, and this tradition is sustained by history; for the city of
Tiaguanifeo did not fall into the hands of the Incas until the Teign of Mayta
Yupanque, the fourth king, at which period the edifices in question must have
been in existence for centuries, and were already in a state of ruin and decay.
Garcilaso de la Vega, himself of the royal Peruvian family, admits that these ruins
existed at the time the country was conquered by his ancestors ;J and a Peruvian
author, two centuries and a half nearer our own time, states that Tiaguanico is
indisputably anterior to the monarchy of the Incas, and speaks, as if from personal
observation, of a gigantic pyramid and colossal human figures cut from solid rock,
indicative of the power and genius of a great nation.^ The first invasion of the
Incas was followed by the erection of some temples to enforce the new religion,
but their only great architectural monument in these parts, the Temple of the
Sun on the island in Titicaca, was not built until the reign of Tapac Yupanque,
the tenth Inca, early in the fifteenth century. Herrera also alludes to a tradition
* Pedro de Ci e c Chronica del Peru, Cap. 105. ISmo. Anvers, 1554.—See also Acosta, Hist,
de las Indias, Lib. VI, Cap. XIV.
ilft Garcilaso de la Vega, Commentaries, Lib..Ill, Cap. 1.
J Idem. Loc& citato. §Merctjrio Perdano, Lima, 1791.
of the Indians that these edifices; had been built by Amazons at a remote era, nor
are the Incas mentioned as having had any part in their construction.*
“ It is probable,” says Humboldt, “ that the edifices which are called.in Peru
by the name of Inga-pilca, or Buildings of the Inca, do not date further back than
the thirteenth century. Those at Vinaque and Tiaguanico were constructed at a
more remote period: so also were the walls of unbaked brick, which were made
by the ancient inhabitants of Quito. It is to be desired that some intelligent
traveller would visit the banks of the great lake Titicaca, the province of Collao,
and more especially the elevated plain of Tiaguanico, which is the centre of an
ancient civilisation in this region.”f
It will now be asked what evidence can be adduced to prove that the people,
whose remains we are considering, were the same with those who have left the
architectural monuments of Tiaguanico and T itic a c a ?T h e fact is established by
the observations of Mr. Pentland, an intelligent English traveller, who has recently
visited the upper provinces of Peru. This gentleman states that in the vicinity
of Titicaca he has “ discovered innumerable tombs, hundreds of which he entered
and examined. These monuments are of a grand species of design and architecture,
resembling Cyclopean remains, and not unworthy of the arts of ancient
Greece or Rome. They therefore betokened a high condition of civilisation; ■ but
the most extraordinary fact belonging to them is their invariably containing the
mortal remains of a race of men, of all ages, from the earliest infancy to maturity
and old age, the formation of whose crania seems to prove that they are an extinct
race of natives who inhabited upper Peru above a thousand years ago, and differing
from any mortals now inhabiting our globe. The site is between the fourteenth
and nineteenth degrees of south latitude, and the skulls found (of which specimens
are both in London and Paris) are remarkable for their extreme extent behind
the occipital foramen; for two-thirds of the weight of the cerebral mass must have
been deposited in this wonderfully elongated posterior chamber: and as the bones
of the face were also much elongated, the general appearance must have been
rather that of some of the ape family than of human beings. In the tombs, as in
those of Egypt, parcels of grain were left beside the dead; and i t . was another
* Hist. Dec. I ll, Lib. IX, Cap. 1.
t Monuments, I, p. 5.—See also Dr. M’Culloh, (Researches, p. 406,) who remarks, in confirmation,
“ that a certain degree of demi-civilisation prevailed in the nations adjoining the Peruvian
empire, which was not derived from their communication with the latter.*