Inca Ruin - Qenqo

At the end of our horse ride we walked to another nearby Inca ruin, that of Qenco, which is an immense carved rocky promontory of steps, holes and canals, surely made to deposit chicha (veberage of maize) that was consumed in the Inca ritual. We can find, a semicircular patio defined by an isometric parameter with several great niches that surround to a stone or wanka of little thickness locked up in an enclosure, is a luck of image within its own chapel.

During the Inca time this place was a temple for public ceremonies. It has an enormous semicircular area of 55 meters in length with 19 distributed incomplete niches throughout the wall. In some publications say that the niches were arranged around the

amphitheatre as seats for the most important people that were worship, but according to recent investigations it is very probable that in fact they have been the bases of a great wall. In front of the clear area there is a great stone block of 6 meters of height that rests on a solid rectangular pedestal. It is possible that it has been a gigantic sculpture that must have had zoomorfas modelings. The lack of precision, must to

the signs of the destruction caused by the extirpadores of idolatries (people in charge to eliminate the own icons of the local cult) during the Colony. It owns in addition a decorated rocky projection with a passage that leads to an underground room, a complex of platform, rooms and a system of drainage channels destined to evacuate the water of the place

The underground chamber
The working of the rock realised here is all a feat. Floors, ceilings, walls, altars and n iches, carefully were worked on the alive rock. Without a doubt, it was a place of cult for secret and hidden rites. The constructors of the place completed its composition with rooms on watch in the perimeter. It owns in addition platform and channels for the evacuation to the rainwater.

The vast grounds lead to a small bridge leaving the site.

(Right - Our guide leads the way to the bridge)

(Left - looking back at the pile of rocks which comprise Qenqo)

(Right - we are on the outskirts of Cusco, down in the valley below - across to the hills on the other side are the symbols of the town)