My Travels In Peru

The Sexy Woman Above Cusco

Standing in Cusco's Plaza de Armas, looking towards the northwest there's a big hill on top of which sit the ruins of the ancient stone fortress of Sacsayhuaman, which our guide tried to humour us by pronouncing it sexy woman.  In the Quechua language, the name means happy falcon. 

It's located about 3600 m above sea level, and if one is energetic, there are steps from the road and a footpath on the side of the hill to climb to it. We took the easy way up by van. It's a large triangular site sitting on top of high cliffs protected on two sides by their sheer drop and on the back sideby a massive stone wall that can't be seen from the city.

On arrival, we face the back wall, which is actually three parallel walls, each at a higher elevation, starting from the base of the hill. Each wall has a zigzag design for greater strength and stability. A terrace lies behind each and at times of conflict soldiers could have used it to fight the enemy from an advantageous position. 

The walls are amazingly well preserved, owing to the massive stones that were used, some weighing more than 300 tons, making it difficult for them to be carted away after the fall of the empire. Doorways and large stone stairs connect one platform to the other. As we walk through them, the guide remarks, "Each platform has a religious significance. The lower one represents death, the next higher one life, and the top one the divine being – the sun." I recognize the trilogy as the three realms of existence, which is the fundamental creed of Andean religion, preceding even the Incan civilization.

I have already talked about Inca architecture in previous chapters, so I will not say much about it here, other than to say that this is the most immense structure that I have seen, and the stonework is of the same high quality  as all the others. However, the proportion of huge stones is bigger than anywhere else. The height of the walls dwarfed even the tallest of basketball players! Although there were many big stones, one in particular is about three metres wide by three metres tall. It takes six people, standing in front of it side-by-side, to cover the bottom third of its face! Words like gigantic, humongous, formidable, and colossal come to mind as we walk along the walls. The same adjectives apply to the effort that must have gone into moving those stones into location. It's still a mystery, to which I dedicate the next chapter.

We're now on top of the hill, inside this huge fortress, and we look down on the walls. They are immense. Facing the other side, looking in the direction of town, very little remains of the many buildings that once stood here. The guide points to three big foundations and says, "These were once large towers, some  as high as twenty metres, but they were demolished by the Spaniards, who used the stones to build their colonial city down below." Nevertheless, what's left is impressive for its design, the size of the stones, and the technical skill required to transport them, cut them, and fit them so close that light could not penetrate the seams between them. He added, "These walls are a monument to Inca engineering."

While the ruins inside the walls disappoint because there's not much left to see, the view below more than compensates for it. The entire Cusco Valley is spread out in panoramic view, with the old city in the centre and the new city stretching outwards, encroaching on the sides of the mountains that surround it. We have clear views of the main square and the key city monuments. The airport is right in the centre and houses butt it on all sides: the end of the runway is no more than three kilometres from the main square.

As I stand here, I think about the location. It has spectacular views and incredible defence characteristics, but being on a high hill north of the city, Sacsayhuaman is bathed in sun all day long. Given that the Inca worshipped the sun, it made me think about Inti (the Sun God). So I ask the guide, "Would this place have been used for religious ceremonies?"