After leaving Pisac , we came to Ollantaytambo.
I got this picture off the internet because none of our pictures showed how massive this site is. This is a history about Ollantaymbo.
The Spanish had caused the Inca empire to collapse. The pacific coast was theirs, they had founded the city of Lima. Marching on Cusco they entered without a fight. The Inca emperor had been put to death, and the city of Cusco was pillaged. The Spanish had installed a puppet emperor who was to do their bidding while they looted the empire for gold and forced the people into Christianity.
The puppet emperor placed on the throne was Manco Inca – but he had no intention of obeying the Spanish. Secretly over the course of two years he raised an army then led a rebellion. The first battle of the rebellion was epic in scale and took place at Sacsayhuamán, above the city of Cusco. Thousands died and the Incas were defeated – what was left of their army retreated toOllantaytambo, a town that was part city, part fort and part rural retreat for the great Inca Pachacutec who ordered its construction. The Spanish followed, after themselves haven suffered heavy loses. Sure in themselves and their superior weapons they approached the massive terraces on which the Inca army was lined up for battle.
The many terraces were used to grow crops.
This picture was taken of us resting as we went up the many steps to the top. Our guide is showing us the face of an Inca God on the huge mountain on the other side. We could also see the store houses. I will put that picture toward the end. Along these steps there were channels with water running down them. Amazing that this was figured out so many years ago. Great workmanship.
I took this picture of Wayne down at the bottom. You can see him over toward the left in his blue shirt.
Wayne took this from the bottom of us going up the steps to the top to see the Temple of the God.
This is at the top, The Temple of the Sun. It was amazing. These big stones were somehow brought from the mountain to the left of this picture and put where they are. Each stone is cut with exactness to fit without mortar. It was amazing to me.
This is the store houses. We were told they were high on the mountain because the gearing dried where it was cooler and windy .
This was very interesting to me. If you want to find out more, there are videos on YouTube and more photos on the Internet. I think we had a great time here at Ollantaymbo, by the way it was very windy.
We are going from here to the train station to board the train to Aguascalientes. This will be the next post.
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