Sacsayhuamán

November 5, 2006

These ruins are simply spectacular and display the Inca’s most extraordinary stonework. Extraordinary not only for its complete precision but for the monumental size of each block.

Pachacútec, expander of the empire, ordered the site’s construction in the mid-1400’s. The complex took almost 100 years to complete with thousands of men. Many of the blocks were taken from as far as 32km away. Some blocks are the size of large buses and weigh hundreds of tons. No-one knows how they managed to move them, not even how they managed to cut the bricks with laser-precision. All that survives of the place is what the Spanish weren’t able to destroy – what they didn’t have the technology to destroy. What you see in my photos is a mere 20% of what once stood here.

Thousands of Spanish and Inca’s died here in an epic battle. Two years after the Spanish marched on Cuzco and installed Manco Inca as a puppet emperor, he led a rebellion that took back Saqsaywaman in 1536. It didn’t last long Juan Pizarro responded with everything the Spanish had and the Incas were defeated.

The photos attached are accompanied by as detailed a description as I can provide of what each part of the complex was for, including an arena, secret tunnels to the city below and 300 ton building blocks.

Photos below