The Sacred Valley of the Incas is an astonishingly beautiful place, perched high up in the midst of the Andes. It is a dramatic steep sided river valley running from the small town of Pisac down past Ollantaytambo to eventually reach Machu Picchu. This area is completely saturated by Inca remains – from glorious fortress-temples clinging to the vertical rock of mountain peaks, to extensive, meticulously organised agricultural terraces carved from the steep valley sides.
Pisac lies just 30km north west of Cusco and the fabulous Sachsayhumuan. The town is small and pretty, situated in the centre of the narrow, perfectly flat plain at the head of the Sacred Valley. Apparently the market here is one of the best in the region – but apart from briefly wandering past we weren’t too interested (by this point in our Peruvian travels we’ve been pestered to buy far too many alopecia jumpers, woolly hats, silver jewellery, colourful blankets and pan-pipes!). The main reason we spent the day here was to explore the Inca ruins that lie on the mountainside just above the town.
Perhaps saying the ancient temple lies ‘just’ above the town isn’t entirely accurate. To be honest, we didn’t expect that climbing to the Inca remains would be anything like as absolutely exhausting or rewarding as it was! The misleading thing was that mountain north of Pisac is absolutely teeming with superb stone terracing – as soon as you climb the first few steep steps from the warden’s hut at the base of the mountain you start to ascend past these wonderful terraces and several pretty waterfalls. And from here if you gaze upwards you can see a number of circular stone ruins perched only a few hundred meters above at the top of the cliff. They must be your target, no? Erm, no. The wonderful Inca site at Pisac is very extensive, meaning that there are terraces and fortifications all over the mountain, on every false summit. The actual Temple of the Sun which forms the most impressive cluster of buildings takes at least an hour and a half of hard climbing up steep stone steps to reach – and even this fails to mark the top of the complex! Climb higher up the increasingly craggy mountain and you’ll reach further stone Inca structures, and receive increasingly spectacular views down over the stunning terraces and the wonderful Sacred valley
So far of the Inca sites we’ve seen Pisac has to be the most dramatic. It was hard work to get to the top of the mountain, but with each steep step upwards you were rewarded with fantastic views, making you want to continue all the way to the top! The Temple of the Sun was particularly impressive, constructed of those perfectly fitting stone blocks that the Incas carved so well. But the most wonderful structures in the complex were without doubt the stone agricultural terraces. There were areas of impressive terracing all over the mountain, but one section on the eastern side was particularly amazing. The name ‘Pisac’ apparently means ‘partridge’, and it’s theorised that this particularly extensive terrace is supposed to represent a partridge’s wing. It certainly looked a lot like a birds’ wing stretching down the mountain… but on a truly magnificent scale. I hope the photographs we’ve included below give you some sort of an idea!
Anyway, the next town in the Sacred Valley we hope to visit is Ollantaytambo, which apparently has its own impressive temple-fortress to guard the centre of the Inca Empire. And all of these are just a warm up to visiting Machu Picchu!
Pisac lies just 30km north west of Cusco and the fabulous Sachsayhumuan. The town is small and pretty, situated in the centre of the narrow, perfectly flat plain at the head of the Sacred Valley. Apparently the market here is one of the best in the region – but apart from briefly wandering past we weren’t too interested (by this point in our Peruvian travels we’ve been pestered to buy far too many alopecia jumpers, woolly hats, silver jewellery, colourful blankets and pan-pipes!). The main reason we spent the day here was to explore the Inca ruins that lie on the mountainside just above the town.
Perhaps saying the ancient temple lies ‘just’ above the town isn’t entirely accurate. To be honest, we didn’t expect that climbing to the Inca remains would be anything like as absolutely exhausting or rewarding as it was! The misleading thing was that mountain north of Pisac is absolutely teeming with superb stone terracing – as soon as you climb the first few steep steps from the warden’s hut at the base of the mountain you start to ascend past these wonderful terraces and several pretty waterfalls. And from here if you gaze upwards you can see a number of circular stone ruins perched only a few hundred meters above at the top of the cliff. They must be your target, no? Erm, no. The wonderful Inca site at Pisac is very extensive, meaning that there are terraces and fortifications all over the mountain, on every false summit. The actual Temple of the Sun which forms the most impressive cluster of buildings takes at least an hour and a half of hard climbing up steep stone steps to reach – and even this fails to mark the top of the complex! Climb higher up the increasingly craggy mountain and you’ll reach further stone Inca structures, and receive increasingly spectacular views down over the stunning terraces and the wonderful Sacred valley
So far of the Inca sites we’ve seen Pisac has to be the most dramatic. It was hard work to get to the top of the mountain, but with each steep step upwards you were rewarded with fantastic views, making you want to continue all the way to the top! The Temple of the Sun was particularly impressive, constructed of those perfectly fitting stone blocks that the Incas carved so well. But the most wonderful structures in the complex were without doubt the stone agricultural terraces. There were areas of impressive terracing all over the mountain, but one section on the eastern side was particularly amazing. The name ‘Pisac’ apparently means ‘partridge’, and it’s theorised that this particularly extensive terrace is supposed to represent a partridge’s wing. It certainly looked a lot like a birds’ wing stretching down the mountain… but on a truly magnificent scale. I hope the photographs we’ve included below give you some sort of an idea!
Anyway, the next town in the Sacred Valley we hope to visit is Ollantaytambo, which apparently has its own impressive temple-fortress to guard the centre of the Inca Empire. And all of these are just a warm up to visiting Machu Picchu!
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