Pisac Archeological Park

The Inca complex at Pisac spreads for about a kilometre along a high mountain ridge above the Sacred Valley of the Urubamba, at the entrance to the valley from the Cusco side. Sweeping curves of stone agricultural terraces climb the slopes beneath it, and along the crest, between roughly 3,450 and 3,510 metres above sea level, groups of buildings, towers, baths and storehouses are linked by narrow paths that cling to the cliffs and in two places pass through tunnels cut in the rock. Across the Kitamayu gorge, the cliff face is riddled with looted tombs belonging to what is thought to be the largest pre-Hispanic cemetery in the region.

Pottery shows that the area was settled before the Incas, but the complex visible today is generally attributed to the emperor Pachacuti, who reigned from 1438 and is thought to have built it after about 1440. Many scholars see it as one of his royal estates, like Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu: at once a country residence for the ruler and his lineage, a religious centre, an observatory, a refuge and a memorial of his victory over the Cuyo people. Its position also commanded a route from the empire's heartland to the edge of the eastern rainforest. Strangely, none of the Spanish chroniclers mentioned it, and its first detailed modern description came from the American diplomat Ephraim George Squier in 1877. The modern town of Pisac in the valley below was laid out in the 1570s under the viceroy Francisco de Toledo.

The site is divided into seven named sectors, from Qanchis Raqay in the north through Qallaq'asa, a residential quarter of houses and storerooms, to the ceremonial centre known as the Intiwatana. There, on a narrow spur with views on both sides, a semicircular enclosure of finely fitted pink granite blocks surrounds a carved ritual rock, the "hitching post of the sun", which is believed to have been used to follow the sun's movements and mark the agricultural year; at the June solstice the sun rises exactly above a neighbouring peak. Temples, one possibly devoted to the moon, and ceremonial baths fed by channels surround it. Further south are watchtowers on the ridge and a row of six adobe storehouses on the slope, placed in cool, airy positions to keep grain and potatoes from spoiling. The archaeological park created in 1983 to protect the complex covers more than 9,000 hectares, and the festival of Willka Raymi is celebrated here every year on 24 August.

Getting there

The complex rises above the town of Pisac in the Sacred Valley, about 18.5 km from Cusco in a straight line. The nearest airport is Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport in Cusco (CUZ), about 17.5 km away.