02-03.08.2015.
Cusco and surroundings
In the Inca mythology Cusco was established by the son (Ayar Manco) and daughter (Mama Ocllo) of the Inca's Sun God, Inti. The brothers came out of e water of Titicaca and went to a fertile valley, where they established the new capital of the Sun God's empire, the city of Cusco.
From the original 10.000 Inca structures in and around Cusco, now none is in its original shape, all of them is destroyed or rebuilt by the Spanish conquistadors for convents, churches or palaces.
One of the convent (now Sant Domingo) was built on the Sun temple (complex) of the Incas, with all walls covered by gold. In the Sun garden all tree, bush and flower was made of gold. These was latter robbed or taken away by Pizarro and other conquistadors. It is interesting that gold and silver was not precious for the Incas, they just used them for decoration. The doors and windows of the temples and palaces of the Incan high class was bigger, than that of the common people, because the people of high class was higher (180-190cm) and bigger due to the better nutrition, they were given, than the common Indians (160-165 cm).
Compared the Museum of Precolumbian Art in Santiago de Chile, that of Cusco is not better. The cathedral of Cusco is now built together with two other churches. In the cathedral there are several altars made of gold or silver. The chapel of el Senior de Los Temblores (Lord of the Earthquakes) is made of 26 kg of pure gold. One of the interesting wallpainting in the cathedral (made by Marcos Zapata, Cusco-born Indian artist) is the "Last Supper of Jesus" where in front of Christ on the plane there is a well roasted cuy (genuine pig).
The most interesting part of the Inca Museum was the mummies of the Inca's ruling class, who were put into a pot, and buried that way in the Sacred Valley, which I will visit next day.
Tambomachay, a guarding post is 3850 m above see level. The conquistadors destroyed around 90% of the buildings, and used the rocks for the new constructions in Cusco. The Incas had the famous path-networks, which run all over the empire connecting it from the far North to the South, from the Amazonas to the Pacific Ocean. Along this path there were regularly guarding post, called "tambo" and a kind of "custom" post, which were rather administrating the messengers and traders using the path, than taxing it.
The Incas believed that the world exists of three parts: the underworld, the gods in the sky and the earth they are living on. Every part of the world had its saint animal as well (snake, puma and condor). The Pukapukaro was the temple of Pachamama (Mother Earth), which connected these three worlds, and where the priests were carrying out the mummification process.
Saqsayhuamán was the biggest and most important temple complex of the Incas, and the biggest in the continent. Around 20.000 people were working on it for decades. It was 20 times bigger (in its original shape) than Machu Picchu, but it was mostly destroyed, the remaining parts represent around 25% of the original.
The working moral and practice of the Incas were strange however efficient, based on cooperativism. Every man between the age of 18-50 had to work for the empire 3 month in every year, this was called "mita". For the Sun God, there was expected a similar offer, which was not obligatory, however the ones who denied it, were exiled. This was called "minca".