day 3 - sacred valley of the inca

We spent most of the third day on a tour of the Sacred Valley of the Incas. The valley is filled with amazing ruins that give you only a taste of what once was.

Sacsayhuaman (sock-say-wah-mahn)

Sacsayhuaman was originally built to be a giant fortress in the shape of a puma head. Pumas were highly regarded (along with the condor and serpent) as one of the three stages of life. Unfortunately, most of the stones were removed by the Spanish to build churches in Cuzco.

View of Cuzco from Sacsayhuaman

Sacsayhuaman

Traditional Inca way, rocks placed and held without mortar

View of Cuzco from the top of Sacsayhuaman

Alpacas! 

Inside Sacsayhuaman

Pisac - (pea-sahk)

Pisac is cool because it contains the tombs of regular folk stored in the mountain sides. No one really knows how they people were able to dig the holes into the mountain, being that the mountain is so steep. All of the people were buried in the fetal position, arms crossing their chest, sometimes surrounded by things they will need in the after life. They believe there are thousands of bodies in these mountain side cliffs. 

We stopped to capture views of the valley, and Snoopy took one of this structure 

The Sacred Valley

The beginning of Pisac - the roofs have been rebuilt as an example of what the traditional Inca rooftops would look like. They provide protection from the rains as well.  

Pisac, from a distance. You can see the dwellings closer to the bottom, with the military watchtowers near the top

Dwellings, and the top terraces. 

Unfortunately, I cannot remember the name of this site. I remember we had to walk up a long hill, and there was a perch that Snoopy was trying to climb to see the whole thing, but he ran out of time. 

Qenqo (ken-ko)

Qenqo in Quechua means Labyrinth. No one really knows exactly what this ruin was originally built for, but it had an interesting set up. It contained a labyrinth of caves, but also, an amphitheater-like feel, with a half circle that contained what appeared to be seats. 

going into the cave!

In the cave

One of the sites we saw was too good to put on this post. It gets its own post.