Tambomachay
The archaeological site of Tambomachay is located at 8 km to the northeast of Cusco. Apparently, it was one of the favorite resting-places of the Incas, used as a resting watering place and, at the same time, it was one of the pillars of the defense system of the Valley of Cusco. It is composed of a set of stone structures finely carved, aqueducts and water falls originating from near springs and thermal sources; that is why people think it was related to the worship of water, one of the pillars of the Andean conception of the world.
The monument is remarkable due to its architectonic excellence. Here you can appreciate four walls or graded terraces embedded to the hill, made of irregular carved-stone polyhedrons, brilliantly assembled, and which make up three parallel cultivation terraces. A thick wall (15 meters long and 4 meters high) decorated with four niches erects on the last polyhedron. The stones had been perfectly adjusted. It has four large trapezoidal niches of 2 meters on average. In front of the building there was a circular large fortified tower that must have had defense and communication aims. Tambomachay has an extraordinary hydraulic system. Two aqueducts, artistically carved on the rock, transport and keep a constant flow of clean water during the whole year, which comes from a large puddle located at a higher level. This network of underground channels pours its waters in a small stone puddle situated at the lowest level. This puddle had to be a liturgical spring, where the Inca worshiped the water with the noblemen of the Empire.
If you look the monument from the river you will be able to see two thick walls that cut the support wall. The wall that faces the river has two big niches and the other, almost perpendicular to the first one, has a door with double jamb. This kind of door was used by the Incas to stress the significance of a place. Through that door we get to a small room in which you can see the water that springs from the bowels of the Earth. The sound of the water, the quietness and peace of the environment, as well as the closed and secluded form of the space in which it was constructed, give Tambomachay a peculiar atmosphere. Besides, it is a great sample of the skills of Andean architects to harmonize constructions and landscape.
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Piquillacta
Piquillacta or City of fleas is a national archaeological park with landscapes of great interest. It is situated in the province of Quispicanchis and covers an area of 8453 acres. It was one of the most spectacular regional centers of the Wari culture.The constructions of Piquillacta are composed by more than 700 structures: 200 Kanchas (departments), 504 qolqas (storages) and different buildings that should have sheltered a population of about ten thousand people. The city was displayed in a harmonious and symmetric way, in blocks with straight streets that embraced many sectors such as the administrative, ceremonial, urban, defensive and a road system. Its buildings had 2 or 3 floors of 12 meters high each one. The walls were made with mud and stones, wide at the bottom but thin at the upper part. At the beginning of the nineties, these walls were covered with mud of 9 cm that then were painted with plaster. Floors were also made with a kind of thick plaster showing the appearance of a white city. Very near the city, you can find the Lucre lagoon or Huacarpay at about 3200 meters high (10500 feet). This was a shelter of wild fauna species such as wild ducks, geese and flamingos due to the suitable atmosphere produced thanks to totora canes and terraces to cultivate in the rocky faces of the mountains. They also fished trout and atherine. |