Author: Archibald Smith

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2015-07-27

Total Pages: 102

ISBN-13: 9781332025053

Excerpt from Observations Inca and Inca Nations, Their Early Remains, Vol. 5: And on Ancient Peruvian Skulls When, after three centuries of Spanish oppression, the Liberator General Simon Bolivar, restored the empire of Peru to the Peruvians, one of his officers observed regarding the ancient capital of the nation - "This city may with truth be called the Rome of America: the immense fortress on the north is the capitol; the Temple of the Sun is its Coliseum; Manco Capac was its Romulus; Viracocha its Augustus; Huascar its Pompey; and Atahualpa its Caesar" (Miller's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 195). In the grand Temple of Cusco, before it was despoiled by the rapacious Pizarro, Almagro, and other merciless Goths, there were seen, seated on golden chairs, the embalmed bodies of the deceased Inca emperors, upon each side of a radiant figure of the Sun in massive gold. In the same sanctuary there was a chapel allotted to the image of the Moon - the acknowledged wife and sister of the Sun, - wherein the walls were lined all round with silver ornaments, as the compartment occupied by the image of the Sun was decorated with gold. On each side of the "Mamaquilla" or Mother-Moon, as here represented, the Stars were placed as her attendants; and the deceased wives of the Incas sat near her in the order of their respective seniority. Father Acosta compares this adoratory of Cusco - the ancient capital of the Incas - to the Pantheon in Rome, and remarks that the devil had persuaded those Indian infidels to erect to his service temples that in magnificence rivalled those dedicated to the true God. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."