those of the poorer sort built of clay and reeds. But Cuzco was the royal
residence, and was adorned with the ample dwellings of the great nobility;
and the massy fragments still incorporated in many of the modern edifices
bear testimony to the size and solidity of the ancient.18

The health of the city was promoted by spacious openings and squares, in
which a numerous population from the capital and the distant country
assembled to celebrate the high festivals of their religion. For Cuzco was
the "Holy City"; 19 and the great temple of the Sun, to which pilgrims
resorted from the furthest borders of the empire, was the most magnificent
structure in the New World, and unsurpassed, probably, in the costliness
of its decorations by any building in the Old.

Towards the north, on the sierra or rugged eminence already noticed, rose
a strong fortress, the remains of which at the present day, by their vast
size, excite the admiration of the traveller.20 It was defended by a single
wall of great thickness, and twelve hundred feet long on the side facing
the city, where the precipitous character of the ground was of itself almost
sufficient for its defence. On the other quarter, where the approaches
were less difficult, it was protected by two other semicircular walls of the
same length as the preceding. They were separated, a considerable
distance from one another and from the fortress; and the intervening
ground was raised so that the walls afforded a breastwork for the troops
stationed there in times of assault. The fortress consisted of three towers,
detached from one another. One was appropriated to the Inca, and was
garnished with the sumptuous decorations befitting a royal residence,
rather than a military post. The other two were held by the garrison,
drawn from the Peruvian nobles, and commanded by an officer of the
blood royal; for the position was of too great importance to be intrusted to
inferior hands. The hill was excavated below the towers, and several