The Sacred Valley

On Saturday we took a bus tour of the Valle Sagrado, or Sacred Valley. We visited many Inca sights, including Pisaq, Urubamba, Ollantaytambo and Calca. The climate on these hikes was similar to that we have experienced in Utah, since both are high deserts.

In Pisaq we got our first taste of the Incan style of terrace farming and villages built in the hillside, including aqueducts, towers, temple, and cemetery The structures are of good quality construction so they have lasted for more than 500 years. The sites are well maintained and preserved by the Peruvian government.



Cliffwall burial grounds at Pisaq




Most interesting to me was the cemetery built into a cliff wall opposite the settlement at Pisaq. The Incas believed that they would come back in another life, so bodies of the dead were buried in the fetal position. In this cemetery there are thousands of tombs in the cliffs across from the Incan village.



Temple fountain in Pisaq



The bus tour took nearly 12 hours with all the stops and hiking at the Inca places. The climb to the top of Ollataytambo was a real workout nearing the end of the day. It was quite spectacular. The temple wall contstruction we saw was typical of other temples and royal places. The enormous stones, mamy taller than we are, were carved to fit precisely together, as well as to withstand earthquakes of great magnitude. These stones were moved from the other side of the valley, miles away. It's hard to imagine how the ancient residents could haul them up the steep incline to create the temple standing atop the hill. 

Margaret, Isaac, Tyler and Steve by the temple wall of Ollataytambo