Four Inca Ruins in Just One Day
Our first day excursion from Cusco brought us up the Sacred Valley a bit on a hike to a string of ruined sites that line the road north-east of the city. The ruins are a popular day-trip among the tourists in Cusco, but most of them take a half-day tour that zooms them through the sites at breakneck speeds. We decided to walk instead, and it once again proved one of my father's sayings: if you want to be alone, walk for a mile. Nobody gets out of their cars. So, we enjoyed these four popular sites pretty much on our own.
(Be sure to scroll to the end of this post as it has a several galleries)
The first stop on our hike was the ruins of Tambomachay, also known as the Baths of the Inca. The site consists of a series of channels and terraces built around the middle of the 15th century about a natural mountain spring. It is not known exactly what purpose the site served, but it has been postulated that this was a sort of bathing complex for the Cusco elite, as the name would imply. Regardless of the meaning of the place, it shows excellent workmanship as evidenced by the fact that the waterworks still function today, after three major earthquakes.
About a kilometer down the draw from Tambomachay lies the ruined site of Pukapukara. Again, the purpose of this site is not fully known, but its firm stone construction on a defensible mountain spur strongly suggest that it had some military function. Other features, such as store rooms, rooms with broad windows and panoramic views, and rooms that appear to have had ritual function suggest that when Pukapukara was not serving as a fort, it had a more mundane function as a stopping point or a simple inn.
A few kilometers down the way from Pukupukara and Tambomachy lie the (locally) famous ruins of Q'enqo, also known as "the carved rock". Q'enqo is centered around a rocky outcropping that the Inca (or perhaps their predecessors) carved with a variety of symbols, stairs and the foundations of long-gone buildings. In a cave under the outcropping is a chamber with two tables carved into it. Its use is unknown; most tour guides say it was for sacrifices, but this is almost certainly false since the Inca sacrificed to the Sun or the Moon, both of whom are conspicuously absent in a cave setting. One alternative hypothesis that we heard was that the tables may have been used as embalming laboratories to prepare the mummies that were so important in Andean culture.
Finally, we headed down the road to the last major site for the day, the complex of Saqsaywaman. Saqsaywaman is on a hill directly over the old city of Cusco. The city was originally designed to have the outline of a puma, and Saqsaywaman was the head. Its exact function is disputed, with some considering it a fortress/citadel and others insisting that it was purely a temple. It seems to us that the truth lay somewhere between: the Inca were certainly a war-like people and they certainly built fortresses. On the other hand, we know that they held ceremonies at Saqsaywaman. The complex was therefore probably a kind of multi-purpose complex, intended as a religious center but built to withstand an attack.
(As an aside, we should point out that this particular military/religious combination is not historically uncommon despite the cognitive dissonance that arises when view with modern western moral norms. Christian churches in the early middle ages were built as fortresses to withstand attack, especially in smaller towns that could not afford walls. They had a tall tower that acted as a keep and slit windows built to allow archers to shoot out of them. The same is true of monasteries, some of which actively trained monks as soldiers. Some of these elements remain in Christian architecture to this day [steeples, for example], although the architects probably are not aware of their origin.)
Saqsaywaman was once a very proud structure. Its most distinctive feature is the huge northern battlement, which consists of three zig-zagged walls each 3-5 meters high and made out of huge boulders up to 150 tons in weight fitted so closely together that a piece of paper won't fit between them. It also had an intricate network of water tunnels, storage tanks and fountains. Unfortunately, the Spanish ordered the complex destroyed after Manco Inca Yupanqui staged a revolt in 1536, two years after the conquista, and used Saqsaywaman to lay siege to Cuzco.
Today, you can still see the outer battlements (the Spanish could not get the huge stones down) as well as the foundations of a multitude of other structures.
Well, that is it for today. We hope you enjoyed the posts and the pictures. Till next time!
August 23rd, 2010 - 09:57
Amazing there still is all that stone lying around, with the new town right on the spot. It’s beginning to look like in Peru you cannot walk a mile without stumbling on ruins? “Easy” access as well,- not much jungle on top…