Transfer to TIPON

According to the locals, this great open-air temple dedicated to water corresponds to the Wari (6th to 13th centuries AD), an important civilization prior to the Inca empire. Connoisseurs can recognize many elements of this culture later assimilated by the Inca Empire. In Tipón the main protagonist is water. There are terraces but they do not seem to have been used for intensive cultivation. Some minor constructions can also be seen: rooms, a large oven for cooking ceramics and kilometers-long aqueducts that bring water from a lagoon located in the hills. A lot of silence, wind, a majestic landscape and the sound of waterfalls give a very special setting to this place.

PIKILLAQTA

Tour of the Pre-Inca City – 12 kilometers from Tipón, the Pikillaqta Archaeological Park (3,350 m.a.s.l.), a set of pre-Hispanic constructions, strangely baptized at the end of the colony with this Quechua term that means «flea town». The reason for the name is unknown, as well as its original name.

Initially Pikillaqta was a satellite city of the Wari, who masterfully assimilated the achievements of the Nazca and Tiahuanaco. His domain even reached the gates of Cusco, as evidenced by these buildings scattered over 50 hectares, approximately.

After their inevitable debacle, the Wari were replaced by the Chancas, a brave people who had to face the emerging empire of the Incas, finally being defeated.

Since then, the men of Tawantinsuyo dominated the city, which was inhabited by «mitimaes», the colonizers of those days.

Numerous Wari constructions still remain in this complex, amounting to more than 700 buildings, 200 courts (courtyards) and numerous houses of up to three levels, distributed in blocks and straight streets. It is thought that in its heyday, it was inhabited by 10,000 people.

Towards the east you can admire the imposing portal of Rumicollqa, where visitors presented the offerings they had prepared during the course of their lives, since the «Pueblo de las Pulgas» was something like an antechamber to the capital of the empire.

We will go to Pisaq for lunch

PISAQ

This great archaeological complex is located in the district of Pisaq, province of Calca, 33 km. east of the city of Cusco. The Castilianized form Pisaq derives from the Quechua word p`isaqa, gallinaceous, a bird that abounds in the place, similar to the partridge or lluthu. An unconfirmed version says that the Inca city of Pisaq has the shape of this bird, which was the tutelary deity of the tribe that inhabited this area in pre-Inca times.

At first, amazement is inevitable, then a feeling of deep respect arises for the creators of those centuries-old buildings, silent witnesses of the greatness of an empire. The beauty of its walls, built with large polished stone blocks with extraordinary symmetry and unparalleled handling of stone, leaves the visitor perplexed.

Pisaq is made up of a set of enclosures such as houses, aqueducts, roads, bridges, a cemetery, walls and large areas of huge terraces.