Sacred Valley of the Incas
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Sacred Valley of the Incas
The Urubamba river runs through the mountains east of Cuzco, carving a fertile river valley that fed local populations from before the Inca Empire to the present time. Along the hills overlooking the river, the Incas built fortresses to protect the river wealth, not knowing they created fascinating places for modern day visitors to tour.
Geographic location and Climate
Located in the heart of the Sacred Valley, Urubamba (2 871 msnm), is to 78 km to the northwest of the city of the Cusco in the route towards Pisac (1 hour 25 minutes in car) or to 57 km (45 minutes in car) of Cusco by route to Chinchero.
Its altitude is of 2.800 m.s.n.m., which confers a more benign climate to him. As it happens in earth located to this height, its climate is marked by two stations: rains and drought. The humid season happens between the months of November to April. Then a heavy shower can untie in second and, unfortunately, not always it is enjoyed a blue sky. But the time of rains also has its advantages, because the hills are covered with green an intense one and the temperatures usually are tempered. During the period of drought the colors of the sky are shining, but the air usually is so dry that the skin seems to become broken. The night is generally very cold and can freeze at dawn. The starred sky is a true spectacle during this season. The Sacred Valley is, climatically speaking, an ideal place. Thus the Peruvians recognized old that went up to here to cure itself. In spite of reaching high temperatures and of being a full zone of vegetation, the valley is free of mosquitos by the altitude in which it is. In addition, it is difficult to choke, because a fresh breeze always blows.
Antecedents
Yucay, namewhich was known the Sacred Valley, was a privileged place in pre-Hispanic times: there the Incas and their descendants were the owners of this land. These possessions were recognized by the Spanish authorities, who granted a payment to the incaica nobility, allowing them, thus to enjoy the wealth of one of the more fertile valleys of Peru. As testimony of those times has remained the palace of Sayri Túpac in Yucay.
The valley was populated with plataforms used to cultivate the most important and significant andean product: the corn.
Access Routes
The Sacred Valley of the Incas is one of greatest attraction for tourists who are interested in the Andean region because of its impressive landscape, its imposing mountains, its pleasant climate, its fertile lands with abundant water, its megalithic cultural evidences and because it offers diverse possibilities for the practice of tourism adventure. It can be accessed from Cusco by highway or by railroad.
Tourist value
The Sacred Valley has become one of the most important tourist centers of the country. Besides to count with historical wealth, expressed in multitude of archaeological rest and dispersed colonial monuments throughout the valley, the region of the Urubamba offers infinite possibilities of entertainment to the tourist: thermal baths, long walks,trips in rafts or kayacs by the river, flights in a glider or paragliding, cavalcades, mountain climbing, etc. In the last years it has developed programs of participatory tourism ,inviting for example the traveller to work in a platform or to collect the salt of a salinera. The Sacred Valley lodges, in addition, to two of the most important artisan markets of the Cusco: Písac and Chinchero.
Although in the last years the tourist infrastructure in the area has grown significantly and today it counts with an important supply of lodgings and restaurants, the valley has known how to preserve its charming natural peace.
How to get there
If you choose to go by car,you need as reference to know that going by the Saphi street you will find a gas station called San Carlos, you are going to be able to get gasoline and to review the state of your automobile with comfort.
Following the route you will arrive at San Cristóbal and if you have enought time, you can take a break in the church and visit one of the most popular protective saints of Cusco. The way to the Sacred Valley is the same which goes towards Sacsayhuamán, so that if you want and the time allow you , you will be able to visit the ruins of the complex, such as Quenco, Puca Pucara and Tambomachay.
The impressive during the way to the valley is that it implies to ascend by the hills that dominate Cusco, which allows you to enjoy astonishing views of the city, especially at dusk or at night. If the time and the light are favorable, splendid photographies can be taken. From these paces it is possible to observe the structure of the city. When days are clear the contrast between the red ceilings and the blue sky is spectacular.
By The Eucalyptuses Path
The path of the eucalyptuses is nice, although somehow abrupt. Along the path the eucalyptuses and retamas accompany the traveller. At four minutes of Tambomachay you will have arrived to Corao and to the scenic view, from where the valley is whowed. All Tuesdays, Thursday and Sundays an artisan fair is carried out here.
Scenic view of Taray
This is the first place from where the valley is really described.The landscape surprises the traveller because right after some curves and ascents, the hills are opened and the valley shows all its beauty. Downwards the waters of the river Vilcanota or Urubamba run. Many magnificent photographies can be taken here . It is very usual to find children who wait anxiously for the arrival of tourists to offer the catalogues made by themselves, that makes them feel extremely proud. The path continues, and if you have good luckyou will see the snow-covered of Huancalle and Pitusiray
The breast of the Ñusta
If you have time and using your own vehicle we advised you to stop the car, because from this place is possible to take good photographies and to observe the structure of the town here. At the left of Písac, on the base of the mountains, “The breast of the Ñusta” According to what people say, this one could have been a tribute to the fertility. Although these platforms are so close to the town, they are preserved nowadays.
The Route
Town of Pisaq
This great archaeological complex was located in the district of P'isaq province of Calca, 33 km. east of the city of Cusco.
There is a strange coincidence between the distances that unite P'isaq, Cusco and Pikillacta. The distance between Cusco and P'isaq is 30 km., and it is exactly the same distance between P'isaq and Pikillacta, and also 30 km. from Cusco to Pikillacta. When one joins the three cities along a straight line, one forms an equilateral triangle. This has sparked a great deal of speculation about this incredible architectural genius that the incas had.
The beauty of its walls, which are made of huge blocks of polished stone with extraordinary symmetry and a unique mastery of the stone, leave the visitor puzzled. One’s first reaction is surprise, which later turns into deep respect for the creators of these ancient buildings, silent witnesses of the greatness of an empire.
‘On the shores of the Willkamayu, the god’s sacred river that runs through carved stone streams to curb its fury, one can see the light and shadowy lines of the P'isaq terraces, the great city of doves. A city of legend that was built on top of a blue rock, almost in air to see more of the most beautiful Cusco Valleys", wrote Peruvian historian Alfonsina Barrionuevo of this ancient Inca city. P'isaq is formed by a group of homes, aqueduct, roads, bridges, a cemetery, walls and great terracing.
When Antonio Raymondi, the Italian naturalist and geographer, visited P'isaq, he was astonished by the beauty of its walls and wrote the following: "what we must admire most in P'isaq is the fine carving and the perfect union of the rocks that are so well assembled, that one can hardly see very fine straight, circled or crooked lines, as to demonstrate the difficulty of the cut and the wittiness of the execution. From distance to distance one can see doors, streets, stairs, towers, quarters and living quarters; suspended in the highest peaks and where the imagination of the most daring constructor would barely dare to raise a building".
The translation of this Quechua word is unclear. Peruvian historian Victor Angles says it is a "name that does not have a translation in another language, because specifically it does not qualify as any object or event"..."The Spanish form is Pisac, from the word P'isaq, which at the same time is also written Pisaqa, which is a bird from the chicken family, a bird that abounds in the place, similar to the pigeon or lluthu."
An unconfirmed version says that the Inca city of P'isaq has the shape of this bird, which was the god of the tribe who lived in this area before the incas.
Urubamba
78 km to the northeast of Cusco from Pisaq and 57 km from Chinchero. It is located in the heart of the Sacred Valley of the Incas. It has healthful climate and extraordinary landscapes emphasizing the Chicón and the colorful countrysides. It was one of the main agricultural centers of the Inca Empire. The conditions of the climate are so favorable that in century XVIII, the naturalistic well-known Antonio Leon de Pinelo, maintained that this place was the Biblical paradise. In season of rains diverse fruits are abundant here in the valley. Urubamba offers different alternatives for the practice from the adventure tourism: long walks, canotaje, cycling of high mountain, and crossed horse.
Town of Chinchero
Chinchero, the most typical town in the sacred Valley of the Incas, is an inca city which the conquerors wanted to "civilize" and establish their culture, but they were never able to achieve it completely. Its inhabitants live in the almost untouched Inca constructions where their ancestors lived and formed the greatest and most prosperous civilization in America.
The city of the Rainbow is located 28 km. northeast of Cusco, over 3,762 meters, midway between the highlands and the warm valley, surrounded by the snow-clad mountains of Salkantay, Veronica and Soray. The view from here is impressive. The current population of Chinchero lives in an old pre-Hispanic settlement and is one of the most representative signs of Andean cultural resistance. Its settlers, dressed in multicolored clothes, maintain their Indian race, only speak Quechua and still keep their age-old customs which they refuse to abandon.
The ayllus, or indigenous communities, as well as the swap system called trueque still goes on. They are Catholic, but their ancient beliefs bubble up now and then, giving thanks to the "Mamapacha" and the "apus", which are mountain spirits. They also make offerings in order to overcome any problem or have good crops.
28 km to the northwest of the city of Cusco (45 minutes by car). The past exists in Chinchero, as if a time-honored culture held on to this place. The native settlers, dressed with colorful clothes, come down from their villages to the main plaza on Sundays to exchange their products. This is a real sign of deep cultural roots, with little sign of modernity.
The current main plaza has a unique beauty; it has an Inca wall with 12 niches, each of which is 2 meters high and 1.50 meters wide. This wall was used as an ornament and as support of another plaza used as an atrium across from the church. It also has colonial arches in each corner, adobe mud-brick buildings, huge salons with windows, doors and terracing which are just a minor trace of the Inca culture.
Chinchero has been and still is one of Cusco’s bread-baskets. Its fertile lands produce excellent potatoes, olluco and oca tubers, lima beans, wheat and barley, which are the main axis of local commerce..
Town of Maras
48 km to the northwest of the city of the Cusco (1 hour in car). It was an important town during the viceroyalty; to thus they demonstrate to the church and the large houses that it still conserves the shields of indigenous nobility in their facades. At the moment its main economic activity is agriculture.
Town of Yucay
It is located 68 km to the north of the city of the Cusco (1 hour 30 minutes in car). According to the legend, it was the personal property of Inca Able Huayna. From remote times one considered a very important center of hydraulic technology and agrarian production. In this locality the Palace of Inca Manco Sayri Túpac can be appreciated.
Salineras de Maras
It is located 10 km of the town of Maras (30 minutes in car or to 2 hours on foot). There are salt mines whose operation is as old as the Tahuantinsuyo. The settlers channel the saline water that emanates from the ground - of a denominated water eye “Qoripujio” - towards pools in which, by effects of the sun, it evaporates leaving in the surface the salt that soon is treated to be sold in the local market. The view of the set of approximately three thousands pools is spectacular. The settlers show the visitors their ancestral techniques and allow them to take part in the harvesting.
Archaeological set of Moray
Located nine km to the northwest of the city of Maras (25 minutes in car)is Moray. It is conformed by four slightly elliptical galleries in which the settlers denominate “muyus”. The greater gallery has a depth of 45 ms and the average height of each platform is 1.80 M.s is considered that the place was an important center of agrarian experimentation during the time of the Incas. Through the use of concentric platforms and because the temperatures in each level are different from others, they would have reproduced all the ecological floors that the empire of the Tahuantinsuyo included.
The Fortitude of Ollantaytambo
Ollantaytambo, one of the most impressive architectural complexes in the Inca Empire, can only be called "Fortress" due to its magnificent walls. It was actually a Tambo or shelter located in a strategic place in the Sacred Valley of the Incas.
The architectural work as well as the quality of each stone, individually carved, make Ollantaytambo one of the most peculiar and amazing works of art made by the incas. Ollantaytambo is located in the district of Urubamba, approximately 60 km. northeast of the city of Cusco and at a height of 2,792 masl. It was built on the side of the Bandolista hill.
Its name means "Tambo de Ollanta". "Tambo" or "Tampu", is a city with the capacity to shelter thousands of people. During Inca times, there were many tambos in different areas with no special name, the people simply called the town in their area a tambo. Throughout the colony, it was called Tambo. It was later called Ollantay in memory of a commander from the Antisuyo who helped Huayna Capac conquer the province of Chinchaysuyo.
Victor Angles explains the origin of the name Ollantaytambo, saying that towards the end of the eighteenth century, a play was staged whose principal character was General Ollanta and the place where all this took place -according to the literary piece- was in the Tambo right below Yucay, which from then on was called Ollantaytambo. Inca Garcilaso de la Vega wrote that, after enhancing the Tambo forts built by Inca Huiracocha, other great buildings were put up in the area.
Alfonsiva Barrionuevo describes the monument: "A stone work with a thick base which filters the waters of a river channeled by rocks, which guard the entrance of Ollantaytambo, the legendary town of Ollanta, the Indian warrior who dared to conquer the heart of a princess"
Historical sanctuary of Machu Picchu
The ruins of Machu Picchu, rediscovered in 1911 by Yale archaeologist Hiram Bingham, are one of the most beautiful and enigmatic ancient sites in the world. While the Inca people certainly used the Andean mountain top (9060 feet elevation), erecting many hundreds of stone structures from the early 1400's, legends and myths indicate that Machu Picchu (meaning 'Old Peak' in the Quechua language) was revered as a sacred place from a far earlier time. Whatever its origins, the Inca turned the site into a small (5 square miles) but extraordinary city. Invisible from below and completely self-contained, surrounded by agricultural terraces sufficient to feed the population, and watered by natural springs, Machu Picchu seems to have been utilized by the Inca as a secret ceremonial city. Two thousand feet above the rumbling Urubamba river, the cloud shrouded ruins have palaces, baths, temples, storage rooms and some 150 houses, all in a remarkable state of preservation.
These structures, carved from the gray granite of the mountain top are wonders of both architectural and aesthetic genius. Many of the building blocks weigh 50 tons or more yet are so precisely sculpted and fitted together with such exactitude that the mortarless joints will not permit the insertion of even a thin knife blade. Little is known of the social or religious use of the site during Inca times. The skeletal remains of ten females to one male had led to the casual assumption that the site may have been a sanctuary for the training of priestesses and /or brides for the Inca nobility. However, subsequent osteological examination of the bones revealed an equal number of male bones, thereby indicating that Machu Picchu was not exclusively a temple or dwelling place of women.
One of Machu Picchu's primary functions was that of astronomical observatory. The Intihuatana stone (meaning 'Hitching Post of the Sun') has been shown to be a precise indicator of the date of the two equinoxes and other significant celestial periods. The Intihuatana (also called the Saywa or Sukhanka stone) is designed to hitch the sun at the two equinoxes, not at the solstice (as is stated in some tourist literature and new-age books). At midday on March 21st and September 21st, the sun stands almost directly above the pillar, creating no shadow at all.
At this precise moment the sun "sits with all his might upon the pillar" and is for a moment "tied" to the rock. At these periods, the Incas held ceremonies at the stone in which they "tied the sun" to halt its northward movement in the sky. There is also an Intihuatana alignment with the December solstice (the summer solstice of the southern hemisphere), when at sunset the sun sinks behind Pumasillo (the Puma's claw), the most sacred mountain of the western Vilcabamba range, but the shrine itself is primarily equinoctial.
Shamanic legends say that when sensitive persons touch their foreheads to the stone, the Intihuatana opens one's vision to the spirit world (the author had such an experience, which is described in detail in Chapter one of Places of Peace and Power, on the web site, www.sacredsites.com). Intihuatana stones were the supremely sacred objects of the Inca people and were systematically searched for and destroyed by the Spaniards. When the Intihuatana stone was broken at an Inca shrine, the Inca believed that the deities of the place died or departed. The Spaniards never found Machu Picchu, even though they suspected its existence, thus the Intihuatana stone and its resident spirits remain in their original position.
The mountain top sanctuary fell into disuse and was abandoned some forty years after the Spanish took Cuzco in 1533. Supply lines linking the many Inca social centers were disrupted and the great empire came to an end. The photograph shows the ruins of Machu Picchu in the foreground with the sacred peak of Wayna Picchu towering behind. Partway down the northern side of Wayna Picchu is the so-called "Temple of the Moon" inside a cavern. As with the ruins of Machu Picchu, there is no archaeological or iconographical evidence to substantiate the 'new-age' assumption that this cave was a goddess site.
When to travel
The best time to visit it is between April-May or September-October, the busy time is from June to August. The rainiest season is October which is cheaper and quite pleasant.
References(In Spanish)
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