Incan adventure-2 20th Feb

Another fab day out in the field with Walter. We started off in the rain at 8:30am and went to visit the church that we had seen on the first day here with the impressive curved Inca wall at one end. What we hadn't found was that at the side you could enter behind the church where some of the Incan temples still stood - Corecancha. As I told you before it was the mission of the Conquistadors to pull down the Incan temples and replace them with Christian churches on the same sites. It was a statement to the locals that their gods were inferior to the Christian one. In this case though, being Cusco - the capital city of the Incas, there was not only one temple to the Sun but also other temples to other parts of Pachamama (or mother nature) that they worshipped. So in this place there was a huge temple to the sun and another to the moon, then one to the rainbow, another to the storm, and one to the stars or constellations. The temples to the sun and moon were destroyed and on top of them was built the church that we saw a couple of days ago, but then for some reason they didn't completely destroy the other temples but instead removed all the gold that they contained and then plastered over all the walls and painted them with Christian symbols such as cherubs and crosses. An earthquake in the 17th century toppled the church and its attached monestary but not the Incan buildings or foundations, everything was rebuilt and then in the Republican era another earthquake in the 1950's toppled everything colonial again, but again the Incan parts stood firm. With the plaster covering in ruins the Peruvians realised that there was Inca masonry work beneath and so the old temple walls were revealed in all there splendour, including the smallest ever stone found in an Incan wall - believed to be in the temple to show the humility of humanity compared to Pachamama. You can see in the photos how the religious stonework is much more orderly than the mighty military stonework. According to the chroniclers at the time of the conquest of the Inca by the Spanish the temples were lined with gold, of course this was all ripped out by the Spanish and taken back to Spain, apparently they were very angry to discover that it was not pure gold... the Inca used to mix the gold with copper to make it harder. In the temple to the stars the roof was covered in stars made from silver matching the constellations that were visible at two different times of the year. This temple also had openings to allow the priests to look at the stars, when the constellations matched those on the ceiling they could announce the start of the equinoxes and thus keep the calender correct. At one end of the complex is a series of terraces (now a park) that used to contain gold statues of all aspects of Pachamama, e.g. statues of insects, animals and plants, apparently there was no theft amongst the Inca, nor graffiti, but this did not apply to the new Spanish visitors who took everything. The rain continued as we made our way to the second stop of the day, the fortress of Saqsayhuoman (pronounced 'sexy woman', but with a longer 'o' in woman, like 'oh'!). In Quechua, it means 'satisfied falcon', because apparently on this hill above Cusco there was a great battle and the falcons came to feast upon the dead until they couldn't eat anymore! The impressive stonework that remains of this huge fort contains both the heaviest (120 tons) and the tallest (9m) stones found so far. A natural hill has been terraced to give 4 separate levels in the fort, the first (lowest) level was manned by Canari soldiers from Ecuador (because apparently they were the bravest and fiercest in the empire (we heard how they resisted the Incan conquest for 30 years or so when we visited Inca Pirca in sourthern Ecuador)), the second level by another tribe called the Chachpoya from the North of the Empire who were skilled with slingshots, and the third level by Incan soldiers. The fourth level was for the nobles from Cusco city who would come here if the city ever came under attack, it also contained a huge watchtower about 9m high. Poor Saqsayhuoman has been the victim of its situation high on the hill above Cusco, before protection if anybody needed some stone they would just topple some of the rocks down the hill and then cut them up to be used for more modern building work. That which remains is still very impressive though. With the rain slowing we moved on to Qenqo (sometimes written Kenko), a temple to the otter (or maybe the puma), it was found completely covered in Earth. This was the work of a special group of Spaniards in the early 17th century (1609) who were ordered to destroy all evidence of Incan religion or military might, they were called the Extripadores de Idolatrias. They ransacked temples and military sites all over Peru, including breaking sacred stones and tumbling buildings or covering them. Archeologists are now finding more and more temples around Cusco, it seems that as tribes were conquered by the Incas they were encouraged to build a temple in the area around Cusco and then to make pilgrimages to the area - a way of making Cusco important and relevant to even far off parts of the empire. Clever! Anyway, at this site, the temple was found completely covered in earth and in the centre of the temple is a rock that has been damaged but must have been important - it was either a statue of a puma or an otter according to all the research that has been done; what is known is that it was probably a temple of people from the jungle because in an enlarged natural tunnel in a big rock to the rear there is a room for mumification - and apparently the jungle folk were the experts at this. There is a huge table where the body was laid and then opened to remove the intestines; then the body is treated with all types of herbs (usually from the jungle) and salt to start the preservation process - there were all sorts of niches for storage of these essential items. Then the bodies were laid out in the sun in the foetal position and, when 'ready', dressed in their clothes and returned to their families. The families added grave goods, food and drink and anything else relevant to the 'recently departed's life' and then they were placed in holes in the hillsides and walled in, but leaving enough space for visits, and once a year to change the clothes, food and drink. The next place we visited, as the rain ceased, was a sort of guardpost or lookout post on the Inca trail from the East called Puka Pukara. Again it was built in a strategic position on a hill overlooking the valley that came from the East, the jungle region of the empire. When people were spotted then the soldiers would be on full alert and check the 'credentials' of those that passed (a bit like passport control). Of course the Inca did not have papers or writing, instead they carried their identification as a series of knots on string. Many of these 'documents' have been found but not much is known about how to interpret them as all knowledge of how they 'functioned' has been lost. From the top of the site we could see the remains of the Inca trail that lead away across the side of a hill, originally these paths were dotted with small huts at every 2km. In these huts sat the messengers, boys between 16 and 24, who could run (across uneven and undulating terrain) the 2km in 6 min or less. As one messenger approached a hut he would blow a horn to announce his arrival so that the next messenger would be ready to receive the message (either the knotted rope type or verbal) and continue, like a big relay race across the country. In this way news was transmitted at high speed across the empire. Next we drove less than a mile down to another temple site that also functioned as a resting site for noble families with a look out tower for their safety. This temple, they think, was to water as it has several fountains. However, as Tristan pointed out, only part of the site (the upper part) has the religious building style, the rest has the military style (even around the fountains), so it is all a bit strange. Impressive though. Finally we made our way to Pisaq (we were going to go yesterday but ran out of time!). The modern town of Pisaq is reached by a bridge over the sacred river which has collapsed on one side in the recent floods. We parked on the Cusco side and walked over the bridge to the town and ate lunch before catching a taxi up to the ancient Pisaq on the top of the mountain (well out of the way of any flooding). What a fabulous place. We walked above the terraces, past the buildings that housed the workers who farmed them, then to the fountains that provided the water for the houses above. I had a discussion with Walter about the design of the fountains, it seemed strange to me. In most sites each fountain is easily accesible, but here there were 4 fountains that could only be reached through one doorway and along an increasingly narrow corridor. Why, when you had to fill large storage jars with water, would they have made it so awkward to get in and out to the water supply? Since each fountain was in a little cubicle like section it appeared to me that they could be used as showers, but Walter insisted that the Inca would never allow 'dirty' water to continue in the water system, any dirty water that had been used had to be thrown onto the earth. The water from the fountains continued down a channel to lower areas of the site, he said it would have been against the law to send dirty water down that way. However, he agreed that the design was very strange and says he is going to do some research. We will be exchanging emails so I will await his findings, he also wants to know if, when we get to Easter island, we find any Incan style buildings as he has heard a rumour that there may be some there! Anyway, from the mystery of the fountains, we followed an Inca trail that wound round the mountainside and then through a natural fissure in the rock that had been widened to the far side of the complex where military lookouts, impressive temples and more terraces and workers' abodes awaited discovery. We walked around the site for over 1 3/4 hours and wondered at the views across the valley, the perfect temple stonework and the beauty of the terraces as they followed the contours of the mountain. We found a sacred bath, where the priest used to bathe before important ceremonies, complete with hand holes and steps. Humming birds flitted around the amazing plants and the clouds puffed and wafted over the surrounding mountains in the piercing blue sky. Completely breath taking in more than one sense.
As we returned to Cusco we stopped to buy Humitas (maize cakes) in the Plaza de Armas and then I have been writing this and sorting the photos ever since! One more day of major sites to go - we are not so frustrated about not going to Macchu Picchu now, it has been absolutely stunning.