Sacsayhuaman

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Most people come to Cusco to see the amazing artifacts and pre-Columbian ruins and today we decided to go explore one of the famous sites of Saqsayhuaman or the temple of the sun, The sun was splitting the stones as we climbed the steep hill called San Cristobal leading up to the ruins.

We paid the 70 soles ($23) each and hired a local guide called Guido (seriously) he turned out to be great and seemed to have a genuine affinity with the place and what it means to the locals.

Sacsayhuaman is loosely translated by the spanish to be satisfied falcon thought to be because of the ruins bloody history involving the Spanish and the last Incan Empire, where many died.
The Quechua word for the ruins is Sacsa Uma which translates as Puma head as the map of the old town of Cusco does indeed resemble the outline of the Puma.

It is said that 20,000 men worked for 50 years on the structure and it is impressive, the stones are fitted together with such precision that you cannot slide a piece of paper though the cracks where each rock fits into another, they are believed to have been built 900-1200 ad, thing is all the information is suspect and they are still unearthing the ruins as we speak, It was believed to be a fort by some others an administrative center, a temple a public place of worship or a storehouse for food, there are catacombs and tunnels which it is believed run down to Cusco city below, they continue to dig and perhaps we will find out the truth in our lifetime.

People leave offerings to the inca gods in the catacombs in our case coca leaves which people here chew to help with altitude. It is an important plant to the Quechua people and you often see the older people with wads of it pushed between the lip and the gum.

Guido explained how it is suspected the stones were moved into place involving logs in rows and brute man power much like the theories as to how Stone Henge and New Grange came to be.

It started to rain as we got to the biggest stone in the complex reputed to be about 150 ton, man did it rain, within minutes flash flooding was running through the ruins about 4" deep, those ruins however have withstood much worse considering this area is earthquake prone and has seen many, the walls have a zig-zag shape said to represent the teeth of the puma.

The rain continued unabated as we decided to call it a day little did we know just how much rain we were about to get in Cusco

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Photos

Saqsayhuaman 21
The ampitheatre

Comments

[rprice]

hola
I really enjoy your prose and descriptions ,.... keep up the interesting comments and the good work,.... huraayyy fer Irish!