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Cuzco, the capital of the Inca Empire, had already existed for several centuries when the first Inca, Manco Capac, moved in from the nearby village of the Paqari-tampu and made it the seat of his dynasty in the 12th century.
When the Spanish conquistadors moved in, they destroyed everything they could and used what was left as foundations and building materials for their own churches and palaces. That green spot in the center is the Plaza de Armas which we will see close-up later.
The Tawantinsuyu, (that's what they called themselves), were in extremely disciplined warrior society who had been told, and who believed, that their leader, whom they called the Inca, was the son of Inti the Sun God who was obeyed by all the other Gods in "God land". They lived quietly without bothering their neighbours for a couple of centuries until the fourth Inca, Mayta Capac discovered his "manifest destiny" and began building the Inca Empire in the 14th century.
Behind me is a very small part of the huge fortress Sacsayhuaman defending Cuzco from the overlooking heights to the west of the city.
Starting in 1571, the powerful Jesuits built the Church of the Company of Jesus (La Compañia), on the remains of the Inca Amarucancha (Courtyard of Serpents) on eastern side of the Plaza de Armas. It competes in splendour with the Cathedral of which a part can be seen on the left of this picture.
Construction of the Cathedral started in 1559 and took a century to complete. This photo of a parade on Plaza de Armas struck me as being symbolically representative of Peru today. It's all there, the privileged elites standing on the steps between the Cathedral and the Army with the anonymous mass of Quechua campesinos in the background!
This ancient street, now called Loretto, is lined with fine Inca stonework. On the left the masonry belonged to the Amarucancha that enclosed the palace of the 11th Inca Huayna Capac now incorporated into the Compañia 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.
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...
A couple of km still further north towards Pisac, are the ruins of a small Inca fort called Puka Pukara.
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.
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 is the Thursday market when people from miles around come to trade life's necessities in Pisac. The Sunday market is even more important and has become regular tourist attraction.
Today's village of Ollantaytambo was built on the foundations of an Inca village, about 50 km downstream from Pisac, at the foot of an imposing temple-fortress guarding the western end of the Sacred Valley (name of the Urubamba valley near Cuzco). The village layout is interesting for it is the best surviving example of Inca planning with enclosures having a single entrance leading to a courtyard giving access to the individual houses (A similar arrangement can be observed in the Chimú capital Chan Chan, which itself was inspired by earlier Huari architecture).
In 1536 Pizarro tried to storm the place to capture Manco Capac after defeating him at Sacsayhuaman but he had to retreat before these easily defended terraces. Pizarro came back later with four times more cavalry and took Ollantaytambo forcing Manco Capac to flee to Vilcabamba in the jungle.
It is difficult to imagine how the Spaniards managed to fight their way up these giant steps against a numerically superior enemy, even with the advantage of cavalry, armour, swords and muskets.
Some historians claim that this was not a fortress but a temple. That position seems to be supported by the presence of the unfinished structure you can see top of the "stairs". I think the point is moot for all Inca constructions seem to present both religious military features which I think is normal for a society where the distinctions that we make between the State, the Church and the Army did not exist.
Here is the unfinished the temple which supports religious rather than military purpose of this impressive Inca construction. Even centuries later you cannot slip a calling card in the tight stone joints between these huge slabs! Religious or military, Ollantaytambo testifies of the overwhelming power of the society that could mobilise the efforts of thousands to build such a place (in this case, thousands of Colla Aborigines from the Titicaca area).
Another interesting but less impressive Inca site is Chinchero halfway between Ollantaytambo and Cuzco.
This small village is also built on the foundations of an ancient Inca village like many others in the Andes. Unfortunately it has become quite touristy like everything else around Cuzco...
