Saturday morning we went up to Salcantay. Wow...what a beautiful place it is! We are going to LOVE it up there! We didn't take the camera so I'll have to post pictures later, but it was amazing. The latter half of the day we went on The City Tour which is a bus tour to many of the ruins around Cusco. Again it was beautiful and we learned a lot!
The first place we visited is called Saqsaywaman. This was another fortress built by the Incans. They brought giant rocks down from the mountains and build three levels of walls. It's amazing to me how they could bring such big rocks so far and fit them together without mortar!
This is a view of Cusco from the top of the fortress at Saqsaywaman
Puka Pukara is Qetchua for Red Fortress
Tambomachay is Qetchua for "Place of Rest". In the Incan religion they had gods for water, fire, earth, rain, lightening, stars and rainbows. Tambomachay was a temple where the Incans worshiped water and fertility. Our tour guide told the women that if we would drink the water we would become fertile, regardless of our age.
The water which runs out of the fountains comes from somewhere underground and has been running for 600 years. There are no rivers, lakes or springs around this temple so archeologists don'w know exactly how the Incans found this under ground sorce of water. The water falls from the fountain and runs under the road...
...out of this aquaduct...
...and into this beautiful stream. Not bad for 13th century architecture.
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