Identifier: explorationofval00hern (find matches)
Title: Exploration of the valley of the Amazon
Year: 1853 (1850s)
Authors: Herndon, William Lewis, 1813-1857 United States. Navy Dept Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862 Mann, Horace, 1796-1859 Gibbon, Lardner
Subjects: Amazon River Valley -- Description and travel Brazil -- Description and travel Peru -- Description and travel Bolivia -- Description and travel America -- Discovery and exploration
Publisher: Washington, R. Armstrong (etc.) Public Printer
Contributing Library: Brown University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brown University

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Figure 38, a gold ornament worn on the forehead; the button, rep-resenting the sun. On a higih hill on the north side of the city are remains of the wallsof the ancient fortress Sacsahuamam, The largest sized stone in thedrawing measured twenty-two* feet at the base, and twelve and a halffeet perpendicularly, independent of its depth in the ground and wall.The Indian boy standing near was full grown. We were at a loss toknow how the ancient Peruvians could handle such heavy masses, andtransport them half a mile over ground nearly level; but some recentdiscoveries by Mr. Layard, in Asia, show no similar acts by humanpowers and mechanical skill. The area occupied by this fortress may be about twelve acres. No .J;2K-^V
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i ^ REIGN OF THE INCAS. 75 fortification in North America would more safely defy the effects ofround shot and shell, though built by people ignorant of such waragents. The angles and ground-plan are systematically laid down ; thestairways, by which the fort was entered, are built so as to be easilyshut up by large stones from the inside, making the door quite as securefrom the outside as the wall itself. The walls encircle the top of thehill, the peak of which stands considerably above the ruins. On thenorth side of the ruins, from which this view was taken, there are manyseats and flat places carved in the rocks, whence it is supposed peoplewitnessed plays on the flats, which have the appearance of parade-grounds. Among these rocks there is a hole, raid to be the entrance toa subterraneous passage under the hill to the Temple of the Sun, adistance of half a mile. I entered it, but could not proceed far, andcame away with doubts. Subterraneous roads, made by the order ofthe Incas, are

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