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tricts were named
f
or their topographical con·
figuration, or in honor of the principal ayllu, or
f
or sorne other symbol. In some of the ancient
Inca sites are now located parishes of the Cath–
olic church.
The streets were straight and short; they
were usually of the same length as an edifice,
and gene.rally narrower in the East and wider in
the West. They were given the names of springs,
trees, promotories, stones, etc., symbols which
at
the time merited especial adoration. Practically
~very
street had its shrine, which was commend–
ed to the special protection of so,me family. The
historian Polo de Ondegardo names
320
of
thes~
shrines within the city and its surroundings.
The name siven
1o a
street aJso indicated
its location
for
instance, UClfAY (u per), URAY
(lower), CHIMPAMPI
(to the front), HUASA
HUARAMP
(a
the back).
Bu
the impression should not be conveyed
that the capital of the Incas was entirely built
up
as a city, for it- also had a rural aspect, due
to the agricultural activities in certain sections.
The cultivation of corn upan the terraces, the
mountain paths, etc. served also as a natural
decoration. Moreover, the roofs of all the houses
being coverel with straw and the trunks ·and
'
branches of trees, also accentuated the rural as ...
pect of Cuzco.
There were severai large plllzas, the largest
~22- .