Sacsayhuaman

SACSAYHUAMAN
An Inherited Citadel

Chapter Six: Nazca Plains

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For information on the origin of these monuments, go to the Current Theories section. Otherwise, continue on to the Nazca Plains.

This site is located north of the city of Cusco, at an altitude of approximately 3,055 metres above sea level. The archaeological park covers an area of 3094 Hectares and contains more than 200 archaeological sites. When the Spanish conquerors arrived first to these lands, they could not explain how Peruvian "Indians", ignorant, wild, without any ability of logical reasoning, just one more animal species, according to conquerors, could have built such a powerful edifice. Their religious fanaticism led them to believe that all that was simply work of demons or maligned spirits.

Figure 1: An example of the inner walls of the citadel of Sacsayhuaman.

The wall or rampart is the most impressive section; built with enormous carved boulders, this construction consists of three massive parallel walls zigzagging together for some 400 metres. This faces the main plaza, called Chuquipampa. This is a plaza with a slight slope, walled with 60 walls, at 25 different angles.The biggest carved boulder of the first wall weighs about 140 tons. The foundations are made of Yucay limestone brought from over 15km away. The outer walls are made from massive diorite blocks from nearby, and the inner buildings and towers are made from dark andesite, some of it brought from over 35km away.

Originally there were three "walls" or "bulwarks" whose foundations can be seen in figures 1-8; they are the most spectacular remains of this fabulous structure. The boulders used for the first or lower levels are the biggest, one of which is 8.5 m high and weights about 300 tons, as shown in figure 8. Boulders such as these classify the walls as being of cyclopean or megalithic architecture. The stones within these three walls fit so perfectly that no blade of grass or steel can slide between them. Nor is there is any mortar. They often join in complex and irregular surfaces that would appear to be a nightmare for the stonemason. There is neither adornment nor inscription.

The how, why and what simply baffle. Modern man can neither explain nor duplicate.

The upper main walls, now gone, were made with andesite, blackish igneous stones whose quarries were located in Waqoto, on the mountains north of San Jeronimo, or in Rumiqolqa about 35 kms from the city.

The destruction of Sacsayhuaman in recent times - reducing it to what we see of it today - lasted about 400 years; since 1536 when Manko Inka began the final war against the Spaniards and sheltered himself in this complex. Later, the first conquerors started using its stones to built their houses in the city; subsequently the city's Church Council ordered in 1559 to take the andesite for the construction of the Cathedral. Even until 1930, Qosqo's neighbours, after paying a very small fee, could take any amount of stones they wanted in order to build their houses in the city: four centuries of desecration by using this complex as a quarry by the colonial city's stone masons.

Sacsayhuaman was supposedly completed around 1508. Depending on who you listen to, it took a crew of 20,000 to 30,000 men working for 60 years. Now consider this: The chronicler Garcilaso de la Vega was born around 1530, and raised in the shadow of these walls. And yet he seems not to have had a clue as to how Sacsayhuaman was built. He wrote:

"....this fortress surpasses the constructions known as the seven wonders of the world. For in the case of a long broad wall like that of Babylon, or the colossus of Rhodes, or the pyramids of Egypt, or the other monuments, one can see clearly how they were executed...how, by summoning an

As an aside, some information on the final battle fought within these imposing walls. Manko Inka, in a counter attack on the Spaniards, took the fortress of Sacsayhuaman, which overlooks the city of Cuzco, and used it as his base. After weeks under siege in the city the Spanish broke out and charged into the surrounding hills to the northwest above the city. They then doubled back to capture the rocky outcrop opposite the fortress. From this outcrop they made repeated attacks across the central plaza against the walls of the fortress. All the Spanish reinforcements on their way from Lima to Cusco had been massacred, so if the Spanish failed to take the fort they were doomed. In the evening and against all odds, the Spanish eventually broke through the Inca defenses and scaled the walls of the fort, driving the defenders into the fortified complex dominated by 3 towers, of which only the foundations remain. After two more days of fighting the Conquistadors finally overwhelmed the Incas, putting them all to the sword.

The interest in this story lies here; it was said that during the battle an unidentified individual, tall, of powerful stature, fair complexion, and reddish beard, armed with an old, tarnished and battered sword and shield, caused havoc by repulsing every enemy who tried to scale the last tower left in Inca hands. Having sworn to fight to the death, he leapt from the top of the tower when defeat was inevitable, rather than accept humiliation and dishonour.

Figure 4: The famous "12 angled stone", having, obviously, twelve different faces. Why so elaborate? For what purpose?

Figure 2: The first wall facing the plaza; note the many different angles, and massive blocks used in construction.

Figure 3: A view of the plaza, currently filled with local dancers during the Inti Raymi festival, as the attackers of the citadel would have approached it. It must have been an terrifying sight, to see the hillside above the walls literally swarming with defenders as you were faced with the impossibility of scaling the massive walls, with naught but a sword and shield.

Figure 8: An example of the cylcopean blocks used in the construction of this massive edifice, compared against the author Graham Hancock. The many angles used in joining, the lack of mortar, and the absolute precision in fitting the blocks together is incannily reminicent of Macchu Picchu.or Ollantaytambo.

immense body of workers and accumulating more and more material day by day and year by year, they overcame all difficulties by employing human effort over a long period. But it is indeed beyond the power of imagination to understand now these Indians, unacquainted with devices, engines, and implements, could have cut, dressed, raised, and lowered great rocks, more like lumps of hills than building stones, and set them so exactly in their places. For this reason, and because the Indians were so familiar with demons, the work is attributed to enchantment."

Surely a few of those 20,000 labourers were still around when Garcilaso was young. Was everyone struck with amnesia? Or is Sacsayhuaman much older than we've been led to believe?

Through archaeology we know that the walls of Sacsayhuaman rose three metres higher than their remnants. That additional three metres of stones supplied the building materials for the cathedrals and "casas" of the conquistadors. It is generally conceded that these stones were much smaller than those megalithic monsters that remain. Perhaps the upper part of the walls, constructed of small, regularly-shaped stones was the only part of Sacsayhuaman that was built by the Incas and "finished in 1508." This could explain why no one at the time of the conquest seemed to know how those mighty walls were built.

Figure 5: Another view of the primary defense walls facing the plaza to the right.

Figure 6: A view of the plaza, with the defensive walls in the background.

Figure 7: The many tiers and angles of the walls were thought to have been designed so as to leave the attackers' flanks exposed during seiges. An imposing sight indeed, to have seen these ramparts filled with weapon-bearing, extremely aggressive Incans.