in the
northwestern part of Peru, near Truxillo. Here, in the time of the first
Incas, was an independent state, which was subjugated by the Inca set
down in the list of Montesinos as the grandfather of Huayna Capac, about
a century before the Spaniards arrived. For what is known of these ruins
we are chiefly indebted to Mariano Rivero, director of the National
Museum at Lima. They cover a space of three quarters of a league,
without including the walled squares found on every side. The chief
objects of interest are the remains of two great edifices called
palaces. "These palaces are immense areas surrounded by high walls of
brick, the walls being now ten or twelve yards high and six feet thick
at the base." There was in each case another wall exterior to this.
Within the palace walls were squares and dwellings, with narrow passages
between them, and the walls are decorated. In the largest palace are the
remains of a great reservoir for water, which was brought to it by
subterranean aqueducts from the River Moche, two miles distant. Outside
the inclosures of these palaces are remains of a vast number of
buildings, which indicate that the city contained a great population.
The Spaniards took vast quantities of gold from the _huacas_ or tombs
at this place. The amount taken from a single tomb in the years 1566 and
1592 was officially estimated at nearly a million dollars. Figure 58
presents an end view of the walls at Gran-Chimu. Figures 59 and 60
represent some of the decorations at Chimu-Canchu.

[Illustration: Fig. 58.--End View of Walls at Gran-Chimu.]

[Illustration: Figs. 59 and 60.--Decorations at Chimu-Canchu.]

[Illustration: Fig. 61.--Edifice, with Gateway, at Old Huanuco.]

Remarkable ruins exist at Cuelap, in Northern Peru. "They consist of a
wall of wrought stones 3600 feet long, 560 broad, and 150 high,
constituting a solid mass with a level summit." Probably the interior
was made of earth. On this mass was another, "600 feet long, 500 broad,
and 150 high." In this, and also in the lower structure, there are many
rooms made of wrought stone, in which are a great number of niches or
cells one or two yards deep, which were used as tombs. Other old
structures exist in that neighborhood. Farther south, at Huanuco el
Viego, or Old Huanuco, are two peculiar edifices and a terrace, and near
them the faded traces of a large town. The two edifices were built of a
composition of pebbles and clay, faced with hewn st