| Title: | Pachacamac |
| Original Title: | Pachacamac |
| Volume and Page: | Vol. 11 (1765), p. 735 |
| Author: | Unknown |
| Translator: | Monica Barnes [Andean Past and American Museum of Natural History] |
| Subject terms: |
Modern history
|
| Original Version (ARTFL): | Link |
| Rights/Permissions: |
This text is protected by copyright and may be linked to without seeking permission. Please see http://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/terms.html for information on reproduction. |
| URL: | http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0002.643 |
| Citation (MLA): | "Pachacamac." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Monica Barnes. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2015. Web. [fill in today's date in the form 18 Apr. 2009 and remove square brackets]. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0002.643>. Trans. of "Pachacamac," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, vol. 11. Paris, 1765. |
| Citation (Chicago): | "Pachacamac." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Monica Barnes. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0002.643 (accessed [fill in today's date in the form April 18, 2009 and remove square brackets]). Originally published as "Pachacamac," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 11:735 (Paris, 1765). |
Name that the idolaters of Peru gave to the supreme being that they adored along with the sun and other false divinities. The main temple of Pachacamac was situated in a valley four leagues from Lima and was established by the Incas or emperors of Peru. [1] They offered this divinity the most precious things that they had and had such a great veneration for its idol that they didn’t dare look at it. Even the kings and the priests entered its temple backwards and left without turning around. The Peruvians put several idols in this temple which, it is said, delivered oracles to the priests who consulted them. Jovet, L’histoire des religions de tous les royaumes du monde, revûe, corrigée, augmentée, et mise dans un meilleur ordre . [2] Hernando Pizarro took away the great riches of the temple of Pachacamac. The ruins that still survive give a good idea of its magnificence.
Notes
1. Archaeological excavations conducted at Pachacamac from the late nineteenth century to the present have demonstrated that the temple city was established centuries before the Incas conquered Peru’s central coast.
2. This corrected edition was first published in 1710 and was based on earlier editions published from 1676.