Worshipping the Sun at Macchu Picchu
Have you ever imagined how deeply fascinating and rich in symbols Inka's architecture and culture could be? No? So let's see what a roundtrip of ten days in Peru, imerging in archeological sites of the most famous Inka ruins, can teach us!
Qosqo, the ancient capital of the Inka Empire and the actual city of Cusco in the heart of the Andes, is headed by Sacsayhuaman, an impressive construction of stone walls (some of them weigh over 100 tons!) that constitute a place for sacred ceremonies.
The perfect knowledge of the agricultural calendar, systems of irrigation and terrace cultivation constitute the main point of interest of their ancient sustainable live style. They mastered the mystification of the Sun by combining naturally positioned and geometrically shaped rocks to produce fascinating games of light and shadows using the orientation of the sunrays on special days like the winter solstice. These events illustrated the power of the gods in order to control the people and were often carried out with sacrifices and offerings. Thanks to all the guides that recalled us all these elements of the Inka culture at the various sites in and around the Sacred Valley, we learnt to discover new forms in the rocks, like the Puma Guard or the Andean Cross, or even the lying Inka Face formed by the Wayna Picchu range in the background of the Macchu Picchu ruins.
As fresh baked Inka amateurs, we enjoyed to find out by ourselves the symbols hidden at the Temple of the Moon near Macchu Picchu. The enigma of this place, lost between Wayna Picchu and the Rio Urubamba and completely ignored by tourists, seemed perfect since haven't found any explanations in the specialized bookshops.
Finally, to supplement our enthusiasm on our return from the highlight of the trip, we did a perfect Mountainbike downhill ride on an Inka trail between Moray and the salt mines in the surrounding hills of the beautiful and very Inka-style village of Ollantaytambo. With some aches the following day, but happy to have survive the expedition and not to have undergone any other kind of breakdown, we had a guinea-pig feast to honour the local tradition and the end of the three weeks' journey with Madou. We would like to thank Anh-Dao's Mum for her amazing energy to climb and descend the thousands of difficult steps during our twelve hours' hike around Macchu Picchu, and for her great patience and flexibility throughout this strenous journey full of inexpected adventures and inconveniences, but also full of inspiring new colours, flavours, smells and ideas.
View our Cusco and Macchu Picchu Photo Set!!!
Have you ever imagined how deeply fascinating and rich in symbols Inka's architecture and culture could be? No? So let's see what a roundtrip of ten days in Peru, imerging in archeological sites of the most famous Inka ruins, can teach us!
Qosqo, the ancient capital of the Inka Empire and the actual city of Cusco in the heart of the Andes, is headed by Sacsayhuaman, an impressive construction of stone walls (some of them weigh over 100 tons!) that constitute a place for sacred ceremonies.
The perfect knowledge of the agricultural calendar, systems of irrigation and terrace cultivation constitute the main point of interest of their ancient sustainable live style. They mastered the mystification of the Sun by combining naturally positioned and geometrically shaped rocks to produce fascinating games of light and shadows using the orientation of the sunrays on special days like the winter solstice. These events illustrated the power of the gods in order to control the people and were often carried out with sacrifices and offerings. Thanks to all the guides that recalled us all these elements of the Inka culture at the various sites in and around the Sacred Valley, we learnt to discover new forms in the rocks, like the Puma Guard or the Andean Cross, or even the lying Inka Face formed by the Wayna Picchu range in the background of the Macchu Picchu ruins.
As fresh baked Inka amateurs, we enjoyed to find out by ourselves the symbols hidden at the Temple of the Moon near Macchu Picchu. The enigma of this place, lost between Wayna Picchu and the Rio Urubamba and completely ignored by tourists, seemed perfect since haven't found any explanations in the specialized bookshops.
Finally, to supplement our enthusiasm on our return from the highlight of the trip, we did a perfect Mountainbike downhill ride on an Inka trail between Moray and the salt mines in the surrounding hills of the beautiful and very Inka-style village of Ollantaytambo. With some aches the following day, but happy to have survive the expedition and not to have undergone any other kind of breakdown, we had a guinea-pig feast to honour the local tradition and the end of the three weeks' journey with Madou. We would like to thank Anh-Dao's Mum for her amazing energy to climb and descend the thousands of difficult steps during our twelve hours' hike around Macchu Picchu, and for her great patience and flexibility throughout this strenous journey full of inexpected adventures and inconveniences, but also full of inspiring new colours, flavours, smells and ideas.
View our Cusco and Macchu Picchu Photo Set!!!
posted by anh-dao at 5/24/2007 10:30:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home