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Published: March 17th 2013
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Cusco and the Sacred Valley. I had often wondered why there was no major conflicts in the Andean countries between the Spanish descendents and the indigenous population in spite of the fact that the former had intellectual supermacy and occupied top echelons of society, the latter forming the lower rungs of society. My Cuzco tour guide gave me an insight into why this is so. She was very passionate about her Inca heritage hated what the Spanish for what they had done to her (may be stupid) forefathers and their heritage, but she could not deny her staunch Catholic beliefs the spread of which was the main reason given for the distructioin of their Inca Culture. Like the ideotic Muslim zealots of Bhoomiyan, distruction of ancient statues of Buddha in Afghanistan, and Timbuktu recently the Spanish zealots could not stand the sight of Inca temples not subservient to their "one true god". As they got the upper hand they systematically tore down the magnificient temples and built their churches in its place. Where they could not (it was not easy to tear down walls that were built to perfection) they used it as foundation or as part of the walls. Thank
goodness. We have at least some of indications of their granduer and heritage.
Our first tours were around the city center where the cathedral dominated the skyline. Inside was a huge ornate church with different chapels and altars. There were hundreds of paintings most made by locals with a few buy Europeans which could be identified quickly. The locals always left some sybols of their heritage in their paintings and to some extend the spaniards tolerated them. We would not know who the artists were as they were not allowed to sign their paintings. Then we went to a few other important buildings where the bases were formed by the Inca walls. The convent of Santa Catalina was a fine example where the Spanish incorprated not only the base but walls and doors into the building as it was too difficult to tear them down. The whole complex formed the Qurikancha the temple and add-ons built by Pacha koota the greatest of the Inca kings in the 15th century.
After the city we moved on to Sacsayhuaman (sexywoman) 3km away which was a major fort complex and lookout point for the security of Cuzco. The base of the fort was anchored by
huge rock pieces, some 20 tons in weight. Again they were shaped and joined together so beautifully that they did not need any cement between then. All their buildings that housed a temple or was for the king or priests were built like this. Their is a lot to talk about their building technics and their beliefs but that can't be done here. We also visited pukapukara and tombomachay where they mummified their dead and stored. Those practices, of course, was banished by the Spaniards. Cusco is a beautiful city founded by "Adam and Eve" of the Incas and mainly built to its glory by Pacha Koota. It is probably one of the safest of cities and you feel very safe here.
The second full day tour of the Sacred Valley was to the suburbs of Cuzco. We drove past Sacsayhuaman to Pisac which was an Inca settlement. There were workers residences charectorised by clay cement between sones, a Moon temple and a Sun temple. At Ollaytantempo a Sun temple with altar made with 6 polished special stones at least 4m in height in line and parallel to equator so that on 22nd of March and September the sun will rise
over the kings head visible on the mountain opposite and cast a shadow at the base of the stones. We also visited Chinchero where there were a lot of agricultural terraces and Moray, an agricultural settlement with a lot of holes on the hill opposite where they kept their mummies (of course treasure hunters have stripped them of their contents). All the settlements also had course with temples at the top. It appears they lived on hills and farmed the valleys.
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