saqsaywaman-sacsayhuaman Photos

SAQSAYWAMAN (SACSAYHUAMAN) is a UNESCO world heritage site.

Built by the Inca empire at an altitudine of 3,700 m, Saqsaywaman (in the quechua language, “content hawk”) it impresses by the high precision with which the blocks of stone were cut and joined without mortar, so that not even a sheet of paper can be inserted between them. The longest wall is 400 m, and the largest block of stone weighs more than 200 tons.

The Inca people is one of the great enigmas. In the 12th century, without their origins being known, the Inca conquered a vast teritory in the North and West of South America, thus setting the largest pre-Columbian empire in America.

Though they did not have a written alphabet (they had a system based on ropes and knots) and they had not discovered the wheel, the Inca were extraordinary citadel builders. They also built a 32,000 km long road network, paved with stone and including even suspended bridges. The Inca road system is second in length to the Roman one and the empire’s capital, Cuzco, was architecturally comparable to ancient Rome.