Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/599

Bk. II. Ch. III. HISTORICAL NOTICE. 583 In liis travels in Peru Mr. Markham describes several towers as existing at Sillustani (Woodcut No. 1009), which he ascribes to the same people. These are certainly sepulchral, and are still filled with bones, which were apparently thrown in by an opening at the top, and rested in a chamber in the centre of the building. Mr. Markham informs us that there are several other monuments of this class in the same district, about which it would be extremely interesting to know more. As there seems little doubt that they are older than the time of the Incas, they must modify to a considerable extent any opinion we may form with regard to the origin of their 1000. Tombs at Sillustani. (Prom a Drawing by Clements Markbaui, Esq.) art, though at the same time they add anothei to the unsolved prob- lems connected with American architecture. Besides the strongly-marked distinction that exists between the architecture of Mexico and Peru, we have the negative evidence of their history and traditions, which make no mention of any inter- course between the Peruvians and any people to the northward. This, however, is not of much weight, as there are no accounts at all which go farther back than tliree or four centuries before the Spanish conquest, and our knowledge of who the Aymaras were is still vague in the extreme. At about that ])eriod it is fal)led that a godlike man, Manco Capac, appeared, with a divine consort, on an island in the Lake of Titicaca, journeying from whence they taught the rude and uncivilized inhab- itants of the country to till the ground, to build houses and towns,