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1994
Peru (Cuzco) - South America
Bec2004-09-20 16:56:23
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On the left the masonry belonged to the Amarucancha that enclosed the palace of the 11th Inca Huayna Capac now incorporated into the Compańia church. The wall on the right that belonged to the Acllahuasi or "House of the Chosen Women" is now part of the convent of Santa Catalina.
Inca stonework can be seen here and there in many places like this alley near the hotel Rojas where I stayed in a poorer a part of Cuzco.
Quenco
This limestone outcrop, a couple of kms north of Cuzco, is called Quenco, which means zigzag, because it is covered with carvings and an intricate pattern of zigzagging channels thought to have been used for the ritual sacrifice of a liquid which could have been anything from chicha to blood.
A tunnel carved into Quenco leads to this altar whose significance has naturally not been recorded by the Spanish...
Puka Pukara
A couple of km still further north towards Pisac, are the ruins of a small Inca fort called Puka Pukara.
Tambo Machay
The next ruins on the way to Pisac appear to have been a very well crafted bath built on the site of a spring that is still flowing today. Naturally, it is called the Inca's bath.
Pisac
Up the hill behind the town of Pisac is a series of fortifications of which the third is a superb Inca fortress that I did not visit because I was too lazy to tackle the two-hour climb it takes to get to the top directly. Only later did I learn that it was possible to get there by a 10 km road around the back.
The village below the fortress dates from colonial times and is inhabited by campesinos who farm the rich valley floor on both sides of the Urubamba river (which flows into the Ucayali, then into the Amazon and eventually in the Atlantic Ocean more than 6000 kms away)..
This
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See photographs from:
Peru Gallery
