The Sacred Valley

The Sacred Valley

I do love a good ruin and so I wasn’t disappointed with Peru’s Sacred Valley!  Although the Inca empire is estimated to have lasted for less than 150 years (before it was rudely interrupted by the Spanish Conquistadors quest for power and gold), they managed to accomplish a great deal of infrastructure and construction in that time.

We bought a “boleto turistico”, which allows you to visit a number of archaeological sites (and some museums) and lasts for ten days.  Our first site was a bonus (not even on the ticket!) – the “gate” at Rumicola.  As with many of these sites, it’s not always certain what various structures were used for (there is no written record as the Spanish were too busy conquering and the Incas, rather unhelpfully, kept their records on “quipus” or knotted string, which has long since disintegrated), but it IS certain that this imposing gate was on the Inca road and (most probably) marked the entrance to the environs of the sacred city of Cusco.

Nearby was the ancient city of Pikillacta, a large (25 hectare) pre-Inca site, originally settled by the Wari people.  The site was split into sectors, and sub-divided into grids, which contained residential areas, temples, squares, warehouses and administrative structures.  Long “streets” of stone walled passageways ran between the sectors, complete with drainage channels.  The outer perimeter wall housed lookout towers to guard the city from attack.  It’s thought that the city was abandoned around 1100AD (before construction was complete), possibly due to resource shortages or conflict. 

Tipón was the next site on our list.  Rather difficult to get to (through a congested village, up a steep track, with hairpin bends – I only saw the sign that said “no buses” on our way down!), but absolutely worth the effort, Tipón is an engineer’s dream (and one of Dave’s favourite sites). Known as the “Temple of Water”, the Inca site consists of neat terraces, irrigated by canals, which are fed by a (ceremonial) fountain further up the hill.  With few other tourists, we were able to potter about at leisure, admiring the ingenuity of the ancient engineers.

The Inca ruins at Pisac are a “must-see” if you’re visiting the Sacred Valley.  We got a taxi up the narrow streets to the entrance (learnt our lesson this time!) and arrived before the ticket office had even opened.  We were alone exploring the ruins, which are believed to have been a summer residence for members of the Incan royal family.  Again, there were terraces (sometimes in very small, seemingly inaccessible, places), watchtowers and a temple.  At the centre of the “intihuatana” or “Sun Temple” lay a large carved ritual stone, believed to have been used as an astronomical clock or calendar by the Incas.  We were able to explore the ruins and get some exercise, by walking downhill back to the town, where Bertha was parked.

The ruins of Ollantaytambo are more compact than some of the others we visited (and much more popular with tourists), so I can’t say they were my favourite – but I did enjoy the extensive bathing and ceremonial fountain area, with water channelled from the adjacent Patakancha River.  More interesting than the ruins was the town, which was celebrating its 150 year anniversary, accompanied by speeches, music, dancing and festivities.

The Maras salt mines weren’t included on our ticket, but were worth a visit anyway.  In use since pre-Inca times, the 6000 or so pools are irrigated by channels fed with salty water from an underground hot spring.  The salt crystallises on the sides of the pools and is then “harvested” during the sunny months.

Unfortunately, it was raining when we visited the Inca ruins of Moray, but that doesn’t make them and less interesting.  It is believed that the circular terraces may have been used as a laboratory to determine which crops would grow at which level.  The sun hit each terrace at different angles and intensities, heating the stones, which then transferred the heat to the loosely turned soil.  Each terrace was a microclimate and the difference in temperature between the upper and lower terrace was as much as 15˚C.

The Chinchero ruins were interesting as a Spanish church was built on the foundations of an Incan palace.  The story goes that in 1540 the fleeing Incans set fire to the site, destroying their extensive terraces to prevent the Spanish from getting their supplies.  The church mixes Incan and Hispanic architecture in its building and inside are beautiful intricate murals and a baroque-style altar.  High wooden beams (also intricately painted) support the roof and there are large paintings dating back to the 1600s.

That brought us to the ruins on the outskirts of Cusco, which was the administrative and political centre of the Incan empire.  Tambomachay is a small site consisting of a ceremonial stone bath channelling water through fountains, perhaps fulfilling a ceremonial use for an Incan water cult.

The ruins of Pukapukara, an Incan fort (or a hunting lodge according to my Lonely Planet!), were swiftly followed by those of Q’enqo – a much more interesting site, believed to have been used for ceremonial sacrifice and death rituals (eg embalming).  Large rocks with hollowed out niches, caverns and tunnels lent it an eerie atmosphere.

I found the site nearest to Cusco, Saqsaywamán (known affectionately as “sexy woman”), one of the most impressive.   The site covers more than 3000 hectares and is dominated by three huge zig-zag stone walls over 300 metres in length.  The 9^th Inca King, Pachacutec, envisioned Cusco as a puma, with Saqsaywamán as its head and the walls as its teeth.  The stones used in the walls are massive – some weighing as much as 300 tonnes (that’s a lot of Berthas!) and up to 5 metres in height.  It’s incredible to think how these might have been moved and positioned all of those years ago.  The stones had been cut to fit exactly, so tight that not even a blade of grass could be stuck in between two stones.  After their victory, the Spanish settlers took most of the smaller stones to build their houses in Cusco, but they left the bigger stones.  The original site had a residential area, fortress, temple and an area for ceremony and death rituals.  We found a narrow tunnel through the rock, partly natural and partly carved out.  When we first entered it looked harmless enough, but it became pitch black and Dave had to use the torch on his phone so that we could see to continue.  Soon enough we came out into the daylight, but we couldn’t help thinking that not many visitors found that bit of the site!

And finally, of course, there is Machu Picchu, which frankly, I found underwhelming, but seems to be on everyone’s bucket list (except mine).  Tourists queuing for the “postcard” photo, security guards blocking you from going back to look at something you might have missed (you were only allowed to move forward!), queues for the tickets, queues for the bus, queues for the entrance, overpriced transport, accommodation and food, with poor quality/service?  I could easily have missed that visit and gone round the rest of the Sacred Valley again! (But Dave loved it!).