Cuzco

Today we went on a tour of Cuzco, the centre of the Inca empire.  Many of the inner city buildings are built on the foundation walls of the former empire.  The streets are very narrow and have cobblestones.  If the street isn't designated as a one way street, cars need to wait at the intersection if there is oncoming traffic as there isn't enough room for two cars.  The vehicle traffic is made worse because of the number of commuter and tourist buses navigating the narrow streets.  It's an aggressive style of driving but also very skilled as the vehicles come within inches of each other as they jockey for position. There is a significant amount of horns going on, but from what I can see, drivers are able to get around.  

Our guide showed us how to spot the characteristics of a real Inca foundation and the replicas.  Over the centuries since the Spaniards gained power around 1550, renovations have included rebuilding on top of the remaing Inca walls that weren't fully destroyed, usually adding a second story.  In the picture below, you can see the Inca stone walls on the bottom part of the buildings and the adobe style finish on top of the stone portion.  Unfortunately, many the old Inca walls have been cut or amended to incorporate the new structures.  But there are many sections that do remain which we saw during our walk around the city.  

Some of the new structures built have been done in the style of Incas stone construction to blend in with the existing architecture.  But they lack the inward slant of the walls that helped make the structure earthquake resistant.  The newer construction also uses mortar.  On their important buildings, the Incas dry fitted the stones - no mortar - so that the rocks were free to move about during an earthquake but settled back into place after the shaking was over.  The Inca also incorporated trapezoidal shaped rocks and openings which also helps lock the stones into place.  

We walked to the Plazoleta Santo Domingo to check out the interior.   After the Spaniards took control of Cuzco, the Church of Santo Domingo was built over the most important Temple of the Incas -- Qorikancha.  It had been a place of worship for ancient tribes but the famous Inca ruler Pachacuti, repurposed and expanded the structures to worship the sun.  The walls were covered in sheets of gold.  It was pretty opulent with gold statues, plates, furniture, etc.  

Around 1940 much of the colonial church was destroyed by an earthquake, but it revealed the Inca temple walls that had been covered with plaster for centuries.  Below shows colonial arches surrounding the courtyard that were built over Inca walls.  Behind are more Inca built walls. 

Temple structures were revealed after the earthquake. The Inca walls below have survived many quakes.  During the Inca Empire, they would have been covered with sheets of gold and silver.  The gold and silver was eventually looted or given to the Spaniards as ransom for one of the Inca Kings.  

The openings in the walls align perfectly even after all these centuries.  This is a shot through one of the end windows and shows the trapezoidal construction used.  

Our walk took us past the Plaza de Armas, a large square in the centre of town.  It's a busy place with lots of people hanging out.  On the day we were there, two groups of young dancers were practicing some folk dance moves.  On one side of the square is a large building: La Cathedral.  

The cathedral was also built on a former Inca site and used stone blocks stolen from other sites, most notably one called Sacsaywaman.  No pictures are permitted in the interior, so I can't show you any.  I can say that this is the grandest church I've been in.  It's full of art, gold and silver, exquisite carvings and  such.  And it's huge.  It is full of colonial art paintings by Pervian artists who put their spin on the religious paintings.  The paintings of the Virgin Mary always depict her with a mountain shaped cape or skirt to identify her with an important Inca belief of "Pachamama" (Mother Earth).

Perhaps the most famous painting in the cathedral is The Last Supper painting by Marcos Zapata.  The big Peruvian influence in this painting is that the main course on the table is a roast Guinea Pig, which has been a food staple in Peru long before they became domesticated pets.  It's kind of weird for you and me to see a large rodent on the dinner table, but it made sense to Zapata.  Guinea Pig is still a staple here.

The oldest painting in Cuzco is also located here.  It shows the city during the earthquake of 1650.  People are seen parading around the plaza with a crucifix.  They are praying for the earthquake to stop and apparently it did.  The subject crucifix is still used in the church.  

Next up, our guide and us pile into a large van, together with another guide and her Spanish speaking tourists to view 4 more historical Inca sites.  They are straight uphill; I'm glad we're not walking.  

The first was Tambomachay.  It is a site that contained a number of water features which continue to work as they did centuries ago.  In the picture below, there is a stream flowing down from an opening the face of the rocks two levels below the top level.  This stream flows into a basin and is split into two even channels which flow into a basin that is thought to have been a ceremonial bath.  

Next up was Pukapukara.  This site was thought to have been a stopping point for travellers or a hunting lodge.  There was a guard house as it had sweeping views of the valley below.  

Q'enqo was the next site.  It is a single large limestone rock where the inside was carved out with zigzag pathways, niches, stairs, a ceremonial sacrifice cave area with an alter.  The rock is a mammoth thing-in retrospect, I should have had someone in the picture for perspective.  When the Spaniards discovered it, they sought to destroy it as they did with all the other Inca religious sites.  They had explosives and used that here to remove the top of the rock and expose the cave.  

The last site was Sacsaywaman and for me, it rivals Machu Picchu for the most impressive Inca site.  Apparently when the Spaniards discovered this site, they could not believe it could be built by human hands and decided it must have been the work of the devil.  The site was then systematically destroyed--walls were torn down and stones were taken to use in other building sites, and this carried on into the 1900's.  Today only about 20% of the original fortress remains.  

Fortunately the rocks remaining are the most impressive.  These rocks form the outside wall of the fortress.  The largest rock is measured at 300 tons.  How they were able to move this rock from the quarry, shape it and get it into place is a mystery.  

The fortress's outer wall is comprised of three zigzag tiers.  I am standing on top of the lowest tier in the picture below.  

There are 22 zig zags in total; my camera only captures about half of them.  

Within the fortress walls would have been your standard high priest temple, housing for the Inca King, five thousand warriors plus the supporting cast of farmers, and such.  Across the grassy flatland is a hill called Rodadero.  We didn't get a chance to learn about this site other than there were towers located on this rock.  Only the foundation of the towers remain; the largest tower is 22 meters in diameter and is thought to have supplied water to the fortress.

After this tour we went back to our hotel in the early afternoon, rested a bit and then proceeded out to grab a bite and do some shopping.  We got lost.  I still have no idea where we where despite our map and the GPS on my phone.  Google maps kept on indicating that a route from our current location and the hotel could not be located.  What?  We ended up asking people for directions back to the hotel and successfully managed getting back in one piece, purchases in hand.  

A late light dinner and then off to bed.  We're up early the next day as were travelling to Puno to check out the Lake Titicaca area.