are supported by buttresses, but the buildings on the terraces and on the platform have been destroyed. The god gave out oracles which attracted many people from great distances. The Incas are said to have consulted it. Hence a large town sprang up to the east of the temple, and the worship of the creator Uira-cocha was superseded by that of the fish god Pachacamac. The site of the temple was very grand and the view was imposing from the platform, with the bright green of the Lurin valley on one side, the desert on the other, and the lofty mountains of Huarochiri in the rear. The view in front, of the Pacific Ocean, with the sun setting behind the rocks which were once Cavillaca and her child, is very grand.
But the fish god and its oracle lost their fame and importance after the conquest by the Incas. It was January 30, 1533, when Hernando Pizarro, and the recorder of his journey, Miguel Astete, reached the temple of Pachacamac. Astete tells us that an idol of wood was found in a good, well-painted building which the people looked upon as their creator and sustainer. Offerings of gold were placed before it, and no one was allowed to enter the temple except the officiating priests. Hernando Pizarro caused the temple to be pulled down and the idol to be broken and burnt before all the people. The Inca, after the conquest of these coast valleys, had built a temple to the sun on the upper platform. But great part of the town was in ruins, and most of the outer wall
