[?] Subscribe To This Site

The Sacred Valley of the Incas

Cusco is surrounded by what is called the Sacred Valley of the Incas. The Sacred Valley mostly extends north towards Machu Picchu and consists of beautiful places like Sacsayhuaman (pronounced sax-ay-woman), Ollantaytambo and Tambomachay. This tour is highly recommended to take your family on. It is a long day and will bring you back in the evening. You should take a tourist bus to the sites, since you will have a guide there who can recount the history of the site and answer most questions you can throw at them. It is recommended that you tip your guide at the end of the trip.

Tambomachay in the Sacred Valley of Cusco Peru

In Tambomachay you find that many of the warriors were brought here to learn various skills such as warcraft and spiritual training. Tambomachay is next to Pukapukara which is another training facility for the young men.

I think at this point, if you haven't been in Peru for very long, you will start feeling like you really understand the culture a little better. Our family vacation became accentuated by the fact that we recognized the amazing history of the people we encountering. They have a great history and you can tell that they are proud of what their Inca ancestors accomplished.

Sacsayhuaman-pronounced sax-ay-woman

This picture of Sacsayhuaman gives you an idea of the massive scale of this establishment. The wall extends for over 400 meters and is as high as 30 feet. Some of the stones used in this wall weigh over 300 tons. The most amazing thing about the stonework in this fortress, as well as all the other Inca

ruins in the Sacred Valley, is that the rocks are fitted together with laser-like precision. They have absolutely flat surfaces and don't use any mortor to stay together. This fortress has significance because in 1536 an Inca by the name of Manco captured this place and held it with many warriors, attacking the Spanish conquistadors in Cusco. Eventually, they drove the Spaniards out of Cusco and into the surrounding hills. The Spaniards, however, against all odds regrouped and attacked the Incas in Sacsayhuaman for 2 years before finally scaling the walls and slaughering all the Incas inside. This was one of the final rebellions that the Spanish put down, basically putting an end to the once proud Inca nation. This fortress and several other fortresses in the Sacred Valley are still being excavated to this day.

Ollantaytambo

This picture points out the precise rock work in Ollantaytambo, the last fortress and temple before Machu Picchu. The thin slice of rock between the larger rocks, is a "cut-out" rock in case of an earthquake. If an earthquake hits, this slender rock is meant to be crushed between the two larger rocks, saving them them from cracking. The Inca came up with this idea because they figured it was a lot less time consuming to reshape a thin piece of rock, than a giant boulder weighing many tons. Genius, huh?

In Ollantaytambo, the rebel leader Manco retreated after his defeat in Sacsayhuaman. Using his brilliant engineering skills, he opened up the irrigation canals, flooding the valley floor with water. This made it difficult for the Spaniards to manuever their horses, forcing them to turn back. This made Ollantaytambo the only Inca fortress to ever repel a Spanish attack. The Spaniards, however, went on to conquer the fortress only a few months later and stripped it of all its gold and declared the Sacred Valley conquered. If they had only known, Machu Picchu was only 15 kilometers north of this fortress...

footer for sacred valley page