APPENDIX C
NOTE ON THE ARCHITECTURE AND ARTS OF THE INCAS
The architecture of the Incas has been so well described by my old friend Squier[1] that a chapter on that subject is superfluous. I should not advise any one to go elsewhere, except to the old writers and to Señor Larrabure y Unanue, who is always accurate, for an account of any ruins which Squier has described, because his account will be found to be incomparably the best. I can speak with some authority, because I have personally visited and examined most of the ruins which engaged Squier's attention.
At the same time the reader must be warned not to rely upon Squier's references to history. He is almost always inaccurate, and sometimes quite wrong. For he dipped into early writers to illustrate his accounts of the ruins. He did not use his knowledge of the ruins to throw light on a thorough study of the early writers.
I propose, however, to give a list of the Inca ruins, with a few references and other notes, as a guide to inquirers. The megalithic ruins, and those of the Grand Chimu on the coast, have already been described.
Cuzco.
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1. | The ruins of the Colcampata palace, probably of the time of the Inca Pachacuti and the same as his Patallacta. See my |
- ↑ Peru. Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the Land of the Incas, by E. George Squier (Macmillan, 1877).
