hief, aged ninety-two, testified that Manco Ccapac came out of a cave
called Tocco, and that he was lord of the town near that cave. Not
one of the witnesses stated that Manco Ccapac came from Paccaritampu,
although it is difficult to imagine why they should not have done
so if, as the contemporary historians believed, this was really the
original Tampu-tocco. The chroniclers were willing enough to accept
the interesting cave near Paccaritampu as the place where Manco
Ccapac was born, and from which he came to conquer Cuzco. Why were
the sworn witnesses so reticent? It seems hardly possible that they
should have forgotten where Tampu-tocco was supposed to have been. Was
their reticence due to the fact that its actual whereabouts had been
successfully kept secret? Manco Ccapac's home was that Tampu-tocco
to which the followers of Pachacuti VI fled with his body after the
overthrow of the old regime, a very secluded and holy place. Did they
know it was in the same fastnesses of the Andes to which in the days
of Pizarro the young Inca Manco had fled from Cuzco? Was this the
cause of their reticence?

Certainly the requirements of Tampu-tocco are met at Machu Picchu. The
splendid natural defenses of the Grand Canyon of the Urubamba made it
an ideal refuge for the descendants of the Amautas during the centuries
of lawlessness and confusion which succeeded the barbarian invasions
from the plains to the east and south. The scarcity of violent
earthquakes and also its healthfulness, both marked characteristics
of Tampu-tocco, are met at Machu Picchu. It is worth noting that the
existence of Machu Picchu might easily have been concealed from the
common people. At the time of the Spanish Conquest its location might
have been known only to the Inca and his priests.

So, notwithstanding the belief of the historians, I feel it is
reasonable to conclude that the first name of the ruins at Machu Picchu
was Tampu-tocco. Here Pachacuti VI was buried; here was the capital of
the little kingdom where during the centuries between the Amautas and
the Incas there was kept alive the wisdom, skill, and best traditions
of the ancient folk who had developed the civilization of Peru.

It is well to remember that the defenses of Cuzco were of little avail
before the onslaught of the warlike invaders. The great organization
of farmers and masons, so successful in its ability to perform
mighty feats of engineering with primitive tools of wood, sto