Sacsaywaman

Yesterday I went to some ruins called Sacsaywaman...or Sexy Woman as it's known by all the locals! It was the second most important structure in all of the Incan Empire. The giant construction was used as housing for the high priests and warriors of Cusco, which was the Incan capitol during that time. It was said that it was 15 meters high and that the Incan's were not finished with it! Only 20% remains today to be seen but if you can imagine a sturcture that spans many miles, encompassing many temples and building including the temple of the moon where the queen and the essence of women in general were worshipped and celebrated. It blew my mind for sure. When the Spanish arrived they almost completely destroyed Sacsaywaman and took over Cusco. Even though they tryed to destroy all representations of what the Incan's worshipped there remains three that they were unable to recongnize within the stones themselves. One is the guinnea pig, another is the llama and the last is the puma. The entire structure of Sacsaywaman represents a puma head and the body is represented by the village below. Of course, today you can't really spot the body of the puma because the village has since grown into a major city but I was told that Avineda del Sol was once the tail of the puma which is still there today.

There were three major animals that were very important to the Inca's then. They were the condor which represented the upper part of the atmosphere or "heaven". The condor also represented force. The puma represented the earth itself or this world and war or power. Last, but certainly not least was the snake which represented the underworld and wisdom. Everytime you see an ancient structer here you see the three levels of the condor, puma and snake. Even by altars there were three tiered steps. Sacsaywaman itself was built on this basis of three layers.

It was amazing to see and unimaginable all in one. I hope that Macchu Picchu is just as amazing as it's the only Incan structure that was both finished and not destroyed by the Spanish. My boss said that if I get enough people together I can join a treck for free! All I would have to pay would be the entrance fee which is about s/122.00...or $60.00 USD. How amazing would that be?!