PERU 2017-Post 6. Cusco City Tour

Tuesday July 4

It's recomended that your first day or two in a high altitude should be somewhat restful to allow your body to adjust, so we stayed in all morning. In the afternoon we took a relatively low energy tour of a few important sites in and around Cusco.

Our laneway

A few history factoids regarding Cusco from Wikipedia for those who are interested. If not you can just look at the pictures;

"The site was the historic capital of the Inca Empire from the 13th until the 16th-century Spanish conquest. ...

It was the capital of the Inca Empire (13th century-1532). Many believe that the city was planned as an effigy in the shape of a puma, a sacred animal.^[14] How Cusco was specifically built, or how its large stones were quarried and transported to the site remain undetermined.

The first three Spaniards arrived in the city in May 1533. On 15 November 1533 Francisco Pizarro officially arrived in Cusco. "The capital of the Incas...astonished the Spaniards by the beauty of its edifices, the length and regularity of its streets." The great square was surrounded by several palaces, since "each sovereign built a new palace for himself." "The delicacy of the stone work excelled" that of the Spaniards'. The fortress had three parapets and was composed of "heavy masses of rock." "Through the heart of the capital ran a river...faced with stone." "The most sumptuous edifice in Cuzco...was undoubtedly the great temple dedicated to the Sun...studded with gold plates...surrounded by convents and dormitories for the priests." "The palaces were numerous and the troops lost no time in plundering them of their contents, as well as despoiling the religious edifices," including the royal mummies in the Coricancha."

So let's go and take s look

Cobblestone streets of the historical part of Cusco.

The majority of the population are Quechua people. Many still dress in their traditional clothing. This mamita (mama) and daughter are offering tourists photos for a small fee. Cusco residents are known as Cuscenans.

It is common to address and be addressed by people you meet on the street as mama or papa.

First stop on our tour is The Cathedral, also known as The Chapel of the Sacred Sacrament built by the Dominican order. When standing in Cusco’s main square, Plaza de Armas, and looking around 360 degrees, it seems that there is a Catholic cathedral or church in every direction. I spotted at least 8 or 9.

Our guide took us into the cathedral. Really a series of churches built side by side beginning in 1560 and as the years went by more chapels were added. No photographs were permitted inside of course but it is the usual conglomeration of wealth and opulence with multiple life size images of Christ on the cross, often wearing Inca clothing and sometimes depicted with black skin. There is lashings of silver and gold and mirror panels which back in the day were more valuable than the latter. Various chapels were designated for people of wealth and stature with other areas for poor commoners just as Jesus would have wanted it... The construction went on for almost 100 years with each new architect changing the work to of his predecessors. The intricate cedar wood carving often overlayed with silver or gold was carved but Quechua people. They included things they were familiar with such as corn and Guinea pigs. A large mural of the last supper has such on the table before Christ and his desciples. But of far more significance than the Christ in Peru, and I understand much of South America, is the Blessed Virgin Mary. She seems to be the main focus of worship. Why? The Church forced conversion upon the locals and so the Virgin Mary became united with the Inca fertility goddess Pachamama also known as the earth/time mother. Simples... Our guide explained that all the Quechua people in the Cusco region are devout Catholics and devout worshippers of traditional Inca gods. As we know, the Catholic Church long before created the right atmosphere for such blended worship when they introduced idols and saints and Mary worship. (Exodus 20:1-6) Unlike the churches and cathedrals of Europe, the Tetragrammaton, YHWH, Jehovah's name, was nowhere to be seen.

On the next side of the square is another cathedral. This one built by the Jesuits. Apparently there was a competition between the Dominicans and the Jesuits to build the biggest cathedral.

Qorikancha, the most important temple in the Inca Empire, also known as The Sun Temple.

"The walls were once covered in sheets of gold and its adjacent courtyard was filled with golden statues. Spanish reports tell of its opulence that was "fabulous beyond belief". When the Spanish required the Inca to raise a ransom in gold for the life of the leader Atahulapa, most of the gold was collected from Coricancha." Wikipedia

Below is part of what the Spanish built around and over the Inka Sun Temple.

"The Spanish colonists built the Church of Santo Domingo on the site, demolishing the temple and using its foundations for the cathedral. Construction took most of a century. This is one of numerous sites where the Spanish incorporated Inca stonework into the structure of a colonial building. Major earthquakes severely damaged the church, but the Inca stone walls, built out of huge, tightly-interlocking blocks of stone, still stand due to their sophisticated stone masonry." Wikipedia

In more ways than one, Spanish colonial Cusco is built on Inca foundations.

The complex includes this beautiful courtyard for the Convent of Santo Domingo.

But what lies behind these Spanish arches?...

Elements of the original Inca Sun Temple. Interestingly the masonry of the dominant Spanish power looks primitive when compared to the precision and intricacy of the subjugated Inca. Even the Conquistadors had to acknowledge the superior workmanship of their enslaved victims.

Next stop, via minibus is the incredible Saksaywaman.

"A citadel on the northern outskirts of the city of Cusco. The site is famed for its remarkable large dry stone walls with boulders carefully cut to fit together tightly without mortar. The stones used in the construction of the terraces at Saksaywaman, which weigh up to 200,000 kilograms are among the largest used in any building in pre-hispanic America, and display a precision of fitting that is unmatched in the Americas. The stones are so closely spaced that a single piece of paper will not fit between many of the stones. This precision, combined with the rounded corners of the blocks, the variety of their interlocking shapes, and the way the walls lean inward have puzzled scientists for decades." From somewhere on the internet...

And from wiki

"After Francisco Pizarro finally entered Cuzco, his brother Pedro Pizarro described, "on top of a hill they [the Inca] had a very strong fort surrounded with masonry walls of stones and having two very high round towers. And in the lower part of this wall there were stones so large and thick that it seemed impossible that human hands could have set them in place...they were so close together, and so well fitted, that the point of a pin could not have been inserted in one of the joints. The whole fortress was built up in terraces and flat spaces." The numerous rooms were "filled with arms, lances, arrows, darts, clubs, bucklersand large oblong shields...there were many morions...there were also...certain stretchers in which the Lords travelled, as in litters."^[8]^:45 Pedro Pizarro described in detail storage rooms that were within the complex and filled with military equipment.^[9]"

In reality though Saksaywaman was a ceremonial ritual site where thousands could gather. Archeologists have found that Saksaywaman was built by the preceding Killke culture; it was expanded by the Inca beginning about the 13th century.

Quechua lady with her alpaca.

The scale of this place is simply breathtaking and the geometry is exquisite.

See the size of those corner stones and look closely at the incredible interlocking shapes. How did they do it? Our guide told us that it was not built by slaves but rather, in the highly state organised Inca society, people were scheduled to work for a portion of the year as a form of taxation.

Next stop Tambomachay. An alternate Spanish name is El Baño del Inca ("the bath of the Inca").

It consists of a series of aqueducts, canals and waterfalls that run through the terraced rocks. It may have served as a military outpost guarding the approaches to Cusco, as a spa resort for the Incan political elite, or both.

Consider the engineering involved in channeling water to pools such that it still functions 500 years later.

How was the altitude treating us. Well, Alexandra had virtually no effects but I was still having to work hard to get enough oxygen as we walked up hills.

Final tour destination, Qenqo. (Quechua for 'Zig-zag') Archeological site located about 4 km northeast of the city of Cusco on a paved road. It is one of the largest 'holy places' in the Cusco Region. Many 'holy' places were based on naturally occurring rock formations.