Northern Coast

PERU TOURIST INFORMATION

Home > Cusco Tourist Information > Places of Interest > Q'enko, Puca Pucara & Tambo Machay

Nearby Inca Ruins: / Sacsayhuaman / Q'enko, Puca Pucara & Tambomachay

Sacred Valley of the Incas / Pisac / Calca & Urubamaba / Ollantaytambo

Q'enko

Entrance on Tourist Ticket

This is one of the finest examples of a rock artfully carved insitu showing complex patterns of steps, seats, geometric reliefs and a puma design. The rock is an excellent example of the Inca 'Rock Worship'. In Inca cosmological beliefs the Incas held large rocky outcrops in reverence, as if they possessed some hidden spiritual force. On top of the rock are zigzag channels which served to course chicha (local maize beer) or sacrificed llama blood for purposes of divination; the speed and route of the liquid, in conjunction with the patterns made in the rock, gave the answers to the priest's invocations.
Inside the rock are large niches and a possible altar. This may have been a place where the mummies of lesser royalty were kept along with gold and precious objects.

Puca Pucara

On the road to Pisac, 7km from Sacsayhuaman. Open daily 7am-5.30pm.

Entrance on Tourist Ticket.

This small site was probably a tambo, or resting place, for travellers. Although Puca Pucara means red fortress, the site does not appear to have any defensive purpose. The buildings are interesting, with fine stonework in many places.

Tambomachay

Entrance on Tourist Ticket

Commonly referred to as the 'Baños del Inca' or Inca baths, Tambomachay was a site for ritual bathing. The excellent quality of the stonework suggests that its use was restricted to the higher nobility, who maybe only used the baths on ceremonial occasions. The ruins basically consist of 3 tired platforms. The top one holds four trapezoidal niches that perhaps were used as seats; on the next level an underground spring emerges directly from a hole at the base of the stonework and from here cascades down to the bottom platform, creating a cold shower just high enough for an Inca to stand under. On this platform the spring water splits into two channels, both pouring the last metre down to ground level.

Information used with the kind permission of Andean Travel Web Guide to Peru