Getting High in Peru: Pukapucara and Qenko

Getting High in Peru:

Pukapucara

 

Google Maps

 

PucaPucara/Pukapucara means “Red (Puka) Fort (Pucara)” in Quechua and possibly is pre-Inca but when conquered by the Inca was used as a control to get into Cusco, the Sacred City. This is where the Sacred Valley with its Inca Trail to Pisac and Machu Picchu begins. 

Approaching the site

Standing sentinel approximately four miles (7 km) out from Cusco, at 12,450 feet (3750 m), it is small with strong walls and good view of the area. The fortress was not built in classical Inca fashion, lacking much of the beauty of finely crafted stone as in what remains at Cusco, Machu Picchu, or other Inca sites. One suggestion is that it was built during the time of the 9^th Inca ruler, Pachacutec, late in Inca rule and therefore not as finely built. Another possibility is that it was a rush job. A third possibility as suggested above is that it was built by the pre-Inca and then taken over and used by the Inca. 

Approximately half of a kilometer away and in view of this fortress, is Quinua Puquio (The Spring of the Quinoa), also called Tambomachay or El Bano del Inca (The Bath of the Inca) today. This site is a better example of Inca construction (large irregular-cut blocks set together along with trapezoid niches or window) in contrast to Pukapucara and also shows how important and sacred water sources were for the Incan societies. Most authorities seem to feel that this site presents a prime example of the Inca of linking the sacred world with their Inca world. It has an underground spring reaching the surface here and then channeled into fountains.  This site is one of ninety-two shrines built around the Cusco area.  

Niche Pic by Enrique Aguilar and a Google maps shot in Peru Prints folder

Q’enko

You pass by Qenko on your way to Pukapucara so it is perhaps 3 miles outside Cusco. You are able to look down on Cusco from this site. Its Quechua Qenko name means “Zigzag” or Labyrinth. And indeed, there are no straight paths at this site. Part of this site’s uniqueness is that it is cut from bedrock. You will see very few cut Incan block. Most of the sources, including our guide, spoke of the three worlds represented here. We live in Kay Pacha, our world; we descend into the Ukhu Pacha, the interior world, and we aspire to the Hanan Pacha, the cosmos where the divinities reside.

We did indeed descend into the interior world for we zigzagged in a passage that took us to a subterranean cave with altars hewn from the rock. It seems to be clear that Qenko had been a religious site. According to Jesus, our guide, it is suggested that in our descent into Ukhu Pacha, the interior world, that this is where bodies were prepared for mummification and the world of the dead. The stone altar was very cold, colder than the surrounding rock and cave, and Jesus said that if you lay on the stone for 30 minutes, you would get hypothermia. The mummification process, for the elite and those chosen as offerings for the mountain spirits, included draining the body of blood, removing the brain matter and disemboweling the person, and then using the coldness of the stone, the heat of the day, and plant matter to dry out the body.

Back in our world, the Kay Pacha, there is a monolith, an upright rock on site, surrounded by a semi-circular area. I did not know at the time that this rock represents the frog (or toad) in a pond. Frogs were harbingers of water springs and rain. Frogs dig into the ground or the bottom of ditches during dry seasons and when they come out of the ground, it is a sign that the rainy season is coming. Frogs croak—talking to the gods. I remember in my travels about Peru, that I’ve seen models of frogs by fountains and other places, just thinking that’s cute, but in Inca times, models of frogs were set in different places believing that the gods would then provide rain.