Neal Bierling, Archaeological Adventures: Getting High in Peru: Saqsawaman, the Cyclopean In...

Neal Bierling, Archaeological Adventures: Getting High in Peru: Saqsawaman, the Cyclopean In...: Cusco, Peru: Saqsawaman, the Cyclopean Inca Site The Statue of Jesus overlooking Cusco.          ...

Getting High in Peru: Saqsawaman, the Cyclopean Inca Site

Cusco, Peru: Saqsawaman, the Cyclopean Inca Site

The Statue of Jesus overlooking Cusco

Cusco down below

             The statue of Jesus overlooks the city of Cusco. Near the statue are the remains of an Inca fortress that also looks down on Cusco. When I first saw this site, I knew that I would love it. Even reference books describing this site use a Middle Eastern archaeological term to describe it. Perhaps you have been to Mycenae in Greece or have heard of Mycenae’s history around the time of the Trojan War. When people returned to Mycenae around three thousand years ago, and when they saw the ruins, they marveled at the 100+ton blocks and exclaimed, “Only the Cyclops (the one-eyed giants) could have constructed a city like this”! So too for Saqsawaman, or as our students were taught (and guide books also mention this mnemonic aid), it sounds like “sexy woman.” Saqsawaman is the name of the Inca site that I will next describe.   

Approaching the site--people for perspective

Note the size of the stone blocks

The Quechua name means “Satisfied Falcon.” In 1536, a bitter battle took place here, just outside and within sight of Cusco, between the Spanish and the Inca. Two years earlier, in 1534, Francisco Pizarro had allowed an Inca prince and brother to Atahualpa, Manco Inca, to be the puppet ruler over Cusco’s Inca. Manco Inca, tired of the abuse by the conquistadors, began to fight them. So in 1536 Manco Inca attacked Cusco and nearly captured it. Manco Inca had controlled Saqsawaman, and he was on the brink of defeating the Spanish in nearby Cusco, but a desperate charge by Spanish cavalry recaptured the fortress, and the Spanish then proceeded to kill 1000s of Inca providing a feast for the Andean condor. 

In-set off-set walls makes it easier to defend against enemies at the walls.

Note the size and the cut of the blocks--any the same?

Now you understand the size of the blocks

 

Note the gate on the second level above the reconstruction

See the lintel stone--just as at Mycenae, Greece

The inset-offset walls composed of cyclopean blocks (up to 300 tons) made for an excellent fortress (with a temple on its peak), and the inset-offset are said to resemble the teeth of a puma. Unlike ancient construction in the Middle East where the cyclopean blocks are uniform, here, the blocks are not uniform. I already mentioned that the design of the outer walls were done to resemble the fangs and teeth of a puma, but keen observers of the walls also see the design of fish, lizards, birds, plants, etc., which may be one reason why the size of the blocks are not uniform. Did an artist in tune with the gods and nature design this site? Not just the different size of the blocks, but there is no uniform cut or angle to the blocks, and yet all of the blocks fit together without mortar and you are unable to place a knife between the courses.   

Alas, the Spanish did tear much of Saqsawaman down and recycled the blocks for their churches and homes in Cusco. Even what remains is a marvel to behold, and you too should exclaim, “How could the Inca construct such a fortress centuries ago and without the technology we possess today? What are we missing here?” 

Another view of the in-set off-set walls

A more distant view to see the three levels of walls with the high place right of center

Here are the women from Calvin with their profe

Final shot of the fortress--do come and spend some time here.

Paz y Shalom, Neal Bierling

Neal Bierling, Archaeological Adventures: Getting High in Peru: Running a Road Race at 8000 ...

Neal Bierling, Archaeological Adventures: Getting High in Peru: Running a Road Race at 8000 ...: Cayma, Peru: Its First (Annual) Maraton--Running at 8 to 9000 Feet in Elevation! That is Getting a High in Peru! Domingo (Sunday) 01 Dece...

Getting High in Peru: Running a Road Race at 8000 to 9000 feet

Cayma, Peru: Its First (Annual) Maraton--Running at 8 to 9000 Feet in Elevation! That is Getting a High in Peru!


Domingo (Sunday) 01 December 2013: Four Calvin students at San Pablo University and I signed up for the 1^st Marathon in Cayma, a suburb outside of Arequipa, Peru. Since I am a “Master” in age (above 40), they only let me run the 4K where the other four ran the 8K. What is unusual about this foot race is that you begin at almost 8000 feet in elevation and you end at 9000 feet, and it is all uphill with a gradual (rather than sharp) uphill finally at around the 4K mark. All five of us finished. Profe took the pictures of me and the Chicas, and I found the pictures of the Chicos on the AQP RUN's Facebook page.

We headed uphill towards Mt. Chachani, our just over 20,000-foot volcano.

Paz y Shalom. Neal Bierling

Neal Bierling, Archaeological Adventures: Getting High in Peru: The Inca Templo del Sol in C...

Neal Bierling, Archaeological Adventures: Getting High in Peru: The Inca Templo del Sol in C...: Cusco, Peru: Inca Templo del Sol In Cusco, and below the giant statue of Jesus ... ... is the statue of Atahualpa and nearby is ......

Getting High in Peru: The Inca Templo del Sol in Cusco

Cusco, Peru: Inca Templo del Sol

In Cusco, and below the giant statue of Jesus ...

... is the statue of Atahualpa and nearby is ...

... the Convento de Santo Domingo built over the ruins of the Inca Temple of the Sun.

This is a good place in Cusco to begin your tour of Inca sites. A colonial church and convent of Santo Domingo now covers the former Inca Temple of the Sun (Templo del Sol). Its Inca or Quechua name is Qorikancha, meaning ‘Golden Courtyard’ since in Inca times the temple walls were said to be covered with 700 solid-gold sheets, each weighing perhaps 2kgs (4.4lbs). Only the lower courses of the well-crafted stonework remain.

In addition to the gold sheets, this temple was said to contain gold and silver replicas of corn ears, llamas, gold-covered altars, and the like so it is easy to picture that when the Spanish took over the temple, it was stripped of its gold, which was then melted down to be shipped to Spain. This was quite the loss for the Inca, for Peru, and for us today but not for the then conquistadors, the royal house of Spain and its fleet of ships which were then built.

One of the nearby sites we’ll visit is Qenqo, which has a mummification table. One of the Inca rites said to be held in the Temple del Sol was that the mummified bodies of the previous kings were brought out each day to be ritually fed food and drink. In the center of the courtyard, where the flower pots now stand was an octagonal font said to have been covered with 55kgs of solid gold [“said to…” the stories were recorded 15 or more years after the Spanish stripped off the gold.]. To the right were the major temples dedicated to the moon and stars, with their room walls covered with sheets of silver. To the left were the smaller temples dedicated to thunder and the rainbow. Note that the floors are covered with pebbles to protect the original Inca floors. Today, these former temples are heavily trafficked with tourists. 

The courtyard where the fountain once stood

The location for the former temples of Thunder and Rainbow

Note the pebble surface protecting the Inca surface

 

Example of Inca finely-cut and well-laid stone walls that have withstood time.

Drain for blood sacrifices?

Looking across the way to the former location of the temples dedicated to the Moon and Stars

Now at location of the former Temples dedicated to the Moon and Stars

 

Walls formerly covered with sheets of silver

The temple was built in the mid-15^th century by the 10^th Inca king, Tupac Yupanqui, meaning then that its function as an Inca temple covered less than 100 years before its destruction by the Spanish and then covered over by the colonial church. In the temple’s most inaccessible part, the Wiracocha, the Universe, as pictured by the Inca had been displayed. A model of what it may have depicted is on display, but again note that the Inca Universe” may not be precisely accurate since this was not written down until 1613. The 3^rd picture has an explanation in Spanish, Quechua, and Aymara.   

The Universe as perhaps viewed by the Inca

Close up

 

Explanation sign onsite with background glare

The pictures show the precise construction of the Inca, and during the severe 1950 earthquake in Cusco, the convent and church and so much else in Cusco was damaged or destroyed, but NOT what remained of the Inca construction. A former Inca could have read this as a sign that their god was still with here and not with the god of the Conquistadors.

Cusco has other examples of finely-cut Inca walls

Several Calvin students wanted to have their picture taken with this stone.

Note all the angles yet how it was finely laid. No knife could go between the courses.

Paz y Shalom, Neal Bierling