Getting High in Peru: Ollantaytambo, on the Road to Machu Picchu

Getting High in Peru: Ollantaytambo, on the Road to Machu Picchu

On-site Sign

 

On-site Sign where left of center terraces are the fore part of a llama and right of center terraces are the body of the llama.

 

Google Earth 2012 picture showing the terraces as the above shot does. To the right of the center is the village square where you can buy food, water, and tourist items.

Now we are 55 miles NW of Cusco, since when we left Pisac, we turned left to the northwest. We are still in the Sacred Valley, and at an archaeological site where the Incas defeated the Spanish conquistadors. We arrived late in the afternoon so bad lighting for photography. Down below, we will later catch the train which will take us to Agua Caliente and Machu Picchu.

            The 700 villagers below the site have shortened the name to Ollanta and say that they have lived here since the 13^th century. The last part of the name “tambo” means rest, so this location is a place of rest before the final leg of the trip to Machu Picchu. Since this is the only way to Machu Picchu, traffic congestion and pollution can be especially bad in the mornings. 

We are beginning to climb the terraces to the Temple of the Sun. This is the fore part of the llama.

As we climb looking back to the village with the village market in the foreground.

A rest on the terraces as we climb up to the Temple of the Sun.

Continuing our climb up.

            Incan Atahualpa was the Inca king when Francisco Pizarro arrived. Atahualpa was captured and killed by Pizarro in 1533. A brother of Atahualpa, Manco Inca became the puppet king for the Spanish when he was about 19 years old. He and his family were abused by the Spanish, but one of his plans for escape did work. He was able to gather a large army and he besieged Cusco forcing the Spanish to retreat to the nearby fortress of Sachsaywaman (blogged earlier). Manco Inca retreated to Ollanta pursued by the half-brother of Pizarro, Hernando Pizarro. Manco showered the Spanish and their allies with arrows, spears, and boulders, and opened up a water channel, which bogged down the Spanish horses. Pizarro retreated but soon returned with an army 4xs the size, forcing Manco Inca to retreat further into the jungle where the Incas were able to hold off the Spanish until 1572 when the Incas became no more of a threat to the Spanish. 

            Ollanta served as a fortress, an administrative center, and a ceremonial center, which included astronomical observations. It had been decorated with silver and gold, which the Spanish soon stripped off. According to some Inca scholars, Inca priests formulated a mythology incorporating astronomy creating a rhythm for life here where they believed the Inca first emerged from the earth.     

At the entrance to the Temple of the Sun where Jesus is explaining what we are seeing

 

Note the Inca blocks above and below

             

Typical Inca construction where the blocks are cut and dragged from the quarry 6 Km away. The story is that the river was temporarily diverted to get the block across the riverbed to the site.

       

The entrance to the Temple of the Sun looking up at the summit with its Holy of Holy center.

 

Note the irregular-cut blocks and a tight fit

        The pre-Inca and Inca creator god of the universe, sun, moon, and stars is Wiracocha. A representation of him, with his craggy features, is on display on the cliff face opposite the site. He is called Wiracochan (messenger of Wiracocha) or Tunupa (canopy of the tree). We looked at him for some time while our guide explained the story. Wiracochan’s craggy features are 465-feet high, and he has a crown with four pointed corners and is carrying a large bag or bundle, and there are storage rooms in the cliff that are part of the bundle.

            Where we sat to observe Wiracochan is actually part of a temple representing a llama and her baby. Llamas, a beast of burden, were very important to the pre-Inca and Inca cultures. We sat on the back of the llama with the terraces, the sides of the llama below. Our guide, Jesus, was explaining the temple, the Temple of the Sun, and the craggy feature of Wiracochan. At the location where the llama’s reproductive organs would be were Inca storehouses for seed with water channels (urinary) below them. On the winter solstice, June 21, the sun shines on a point in the Temple of the Sun where the llama’s head and eye would be. The llama then wakes up, realizes how dry it is, and moves downhill to drink water and to begin the yearly cycle once again. As we climbed up the terraces to the Temple of the Sun, we were climbing up the front part of the llama to its head.    

Wiracochan or Tunupa: Center is the head/face and the right of center are the storerooms which are part of the bundle he is carrying. Left of center are more storerooms. 

 

Now the face of Wiracochan is left of center.

Heading for the spine of the llama

 

A view from the llama's spine down to the village and valley

 

The Mercado is down in the foreground

             

A close up of the storerooms cut into the cliff and part of the bundle carried by Wiracochan

        The pre-Inca and Incans, at least the priests, came to realize that climate can change and this region also endured seismic activity. Accepting this, the residents of Ollante constructed storage rooms in the “bundle” to preserve food for possible perilous times. This foresight helped seal Inca power over the region. The priests also studied the stars, the Pleiades, for example. They built observatories at different locations to study their movement, and the Pleiades return to their purview at harvest (storage) time. From the temple of the Sun here at Ollante, the Pleiades appear at dawn during the winter solstice (June 21) in front of Wiracochan. At the summer solstice (December 22) the sun shines on the craggy face of the creator god and his bundle.

            As an Ancient Middle East archaeologist, I am intrigued that the pre-Inca and Inca, the ancient Hebrews, Canaanites, Greeks, Egyptians, and so many other civilizations in the Old or New World found and recognized the Pleiades*. We all have similar needs and come up with similar answers.         

                We spent some time at the main entrance to the Temple of the Sun and up higher by the huge pink granite blocks forming the front piece of the ceremonial platform within the temple. The entrance blocks had strange protuberances on them, which get highlighted on the spring equinox (September 23), helping to fix the date. 

 

Now at the Ceremonial Platform of the temple with its pink granite blocks.

 

Another view

The camera is recording the view of Wiracochan from the Temple of the Sun.

            A couple of photos show several students sticking their heads into niches. According to the story which the guide told, the niches functioned as megaphones to lead the people in religious ceremonies. We determined that this no longer worked well since the surrounding structures were no longer complete.

 

The Niches

   

This does look strange.

*You can find reference to the Pleiades in Job 9:9, 38:31 and Amos 5:8. In the north hemisphere, the Pleiades rise near dawn signaling the opening of seafaring and farming and its dawn autumnal setting marks the end. Hesiod and Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey note the Pleiades.  In Revelation 1:16 the Son of Man, the Messiah holds the 7 stars (the Pleiades) in his right hand.

For the Inca, the Pleiades represent time to scatter the seed, and the Pleiades return at harvest (storage) time.

Paz y Shalom. Neal Bierling