The Quichua nation extended at one time over a region of country more than two thousand miles long.  This whole region, when the Spaniards arrived, “was a populous and prosperous empire, complete in its civil organization, supported by an efficient system of industry, and presenting a notable development of some of the more important arts of civilized life.” (Baldwin’s “Ancient America,” p. 222.)

The companions of Pizarro found everywhere the evidences of a civilization of vast antiquity.  Cieca de Leon mentions “great edifices” that were in ruins at Tiahuanaca, “an artificial hill raised on a groundwork of stone,” and “two stone idols, apparently made by skilful artificers,” ten or twelve feet high, clothed in long robes.  “In this place, also,” says De Leon, “there are stones so large and so overgrown that our wonder is excited, it being incomprehensible how the power of man could have placed them where we see them.  They are variously wrought, and some of them, having the form of men, must have been idols.  Near the walls are many caves and excavations under the earth; but in another place, farther west, are other and greater monuments, such as large gate-ways with hinges, platforms, and porches, each made of a single stone.  It surprised me to see these enormous gate-ways, made of great masses of stone, some of which were thirty feet long, fifteen high, and six thick.”

The capital of the Chimus of Northern Peru at Gran-Chimu was conquered by the Incas after a long and bloody struggle, and the capital was given up to barbaric ravage and spoliation.  But its remains exist to-day, the marvel of the Southern Continent, covering not less than twenty square miles.  Tombs, temples, and palaces arise on every hand, ruined but still traceable.  Immense pyramidal structures, some of them half a mile in circuit; vast areas shut in by massive walls, each containing its water-tank, its shops, municipal edifices, and the dwellings of its inhabitants, and each a branch of a larger organization; prisons, furnaces for smelting metals, and almost every concomitant of civilization, existed in the ancient Chimu capital.  One of the great pyramids, called the “Temple of the Sun,” is 812 feet long by 470 wide, and 150 high.  These vast structures have been ruined for centuries, but still the work of excavation is going on.

One of the centres of the ancient Quichua civilization was around Lake Titicaca.  The buildings here, as throughout Peru, were all constructed of hewn stone, and had doors and windows with posts, sills, and thresholds of stone.

At Cuelap, in Northern Peru, remarkable ruins were found.  “They consist of a wall of wrought stones 3600 feet long, 560 broad, and 150 high, constituting a solid mass with a level summit.  On this mass was another 600 feet long, 500 broad, and 150 high,” making an aggregate height of three hundred feet!  In it were rooms and cells which were used as tombs.

Very ancient ruins, showing remains of large and remarkable edifices, were found near Huamanga, and described by Cieca de Leon.  The native traditions said this city was built “by bearded white men, who came there long before the time of the Incas, and established a settlement.”