The Sacsayhuaman Archaeological Park, one of the most important sites around Cusco.
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Highlight: The Sacsayhuaman Archaeological Park, one of the most important sites around Cusco
Location: Just outside of Cusco city.
Duration: One full day.
Level: Easy
Adventure Rating: On the traditional city tour circuit.
Departure Dates: Any day with two people. We offer affordably-priced tours for 2 people so that you can depart on the date that suits you.
Combos & Upgrades: Combine with one of our treks for a better Cusco experience, and get a 10% discount on your trek price.
This is one of the traditional tours around Cusco, usually done the day after arrival. Despite being extremely touristic, it’s still an excellent tour that gets you out of Cusco city and helps you begin to understand the incredible construction and building abilities of the Incas. You will be amazed by the enormous, towering rocks at Sacsayhuaman and the views of Cusco. This is a great day’s outing that can be done on horseback, on foot, or by car, depending on your fitness.
Visitors to this magnificent Inca Fortress cannot fail to be impressed by the beauty and monumental scale of this important temple. Sacsayhuaman can be translated as speckled falcon or speckled head. The last interpretation refers to the belief that the city of Cusco was set out in the form of a puma whose head was the hill of Sacsayhuamán.
The main part consists of three massive parallel walls zigzagging together for some 400m, designed to make any attacker expose his flanks. The massive blocks, the largest being 8.5m high and weighing nearly 300 tons, are fitted together with extreme accuracy. The foundations are made of limestone. The outer walls are made from massive diorite blocks from nearby, and the inner buildings and towers are made from dark andesite, some of it brought from over 35km away. With only natural fiber ropes, stone hammers and bronze chisels the construction must have been an enormous task. The chronicler Cieza de Leon, writing in the 1550´s, wrote that some 20,000 men were involved in the construction of Sacsayhuamán.
This is one of the important astronomical sites and is as if it possessed some hidden spiritual force. Q´enko is one of the finest examples of an artfully carved rock and an excellent example of how the Incas worshipped. This large limestone rock shows complex patterns of steps, seats, geometric shapes and a puma design. The name of this small but fascinating ruin means ‘zigzag’ because it is covered with zigzagging channels. These channels were used for the ritual sacrifice of chicha (local corn beer) inside the rock are large niches and a possible altar. This may have been a place where the mummies of lesser royalty were kept along with gold and other precious objects.
Located on a small hill with a nice view over the surrounding areas, Puca Pucara was more likely as a tambo, an administrative, resting house. Travelers may have lodged here with their goods and animals before entering, or after leaving Cusco. It also served as a guard post that controlled the flow of people between Cusco and the Sacred Valley
This is the temple of water where Incas possibly did purification ceremonies and it was a site for ritual bathing. The excellent quality of stonework suggests that use was restricted to the aristocracy, who maybe only used the baths on ceremonial occasions. The ruins basically consist of 3 tiered platforms. The top platform has four niches that probably were used as seats. On the next level an underground spring emerges directly from a hole to the base of the stonework. From here it cascades down to the bottom platform, creating a cold shower that was just high enough for an Inca to stand under.
Itinerary notes:
| N° people | 2 Person | 3 People | 4-5 People | 6-7 people | 8+more |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price/Person | $ 130 | $ 110 | $ 90 | $ 75 | $ 70 |
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