{"id":75189,"date":"2019-06-20T16:39:40","date_gmt":"2019-06-20T22:39:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=75189"},"modified":"2019-06-20T16:39:40","modified_gmt":"2019-06-20T22:39:40","slug":"sacsayhuaman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/06\/sacsayhuaman.html","title":{"rendered":"Sacsayhuam\u00e1n"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"We<\/a>
The very large stone complex of Sacsayhuam\u00e1n
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We headed out this morning to look at several very important Inca archaeological sites, beginning with the massive citadel or fortress \u2014 our local guide consistently called it a temple \u2014 of\u00a0Sacsayhuam\u00e1n or\u00a0Saqsaywaman (or just about any roughly similar spelling that you care to choose; it sounds something like \u201csexy woman\u201d) to the north of Cusco. \u00a0I\u2019m not sure exactly on what grounds it has been pronounced a fortress. \u00a0The massive walls and the hilltop location would certainly be consistent with such a role, but it may in fact have been a temple for all I know. \u00a0There are no inscriptions; the Inca had no written language.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sacsayhuam\u00e1n is enormous, and enormously impressive, although its foundations are invisible underground and although it is only a fraction of its former self. \u00a0(Much of the stone with which colonial Cusco was built was \u201cquarried\u201d at\u00a0Sacsayhuam\u00e1n; even into modern times, says our guide, before tourism came to Peru and made the structure\u2019s preservation financially advantageous, at least one mayor of Cusco was charging people fifty dollars per truckload of stone when they came and carried it away). \u00a0The largest of the stones from which Sacsayhuam\u00e1n was constructed has been estimated to weigh between almost 130 tons and 200 tons. \u00a0No mortar was used in building\u00a0Sacsayhuam\u00e1n, but the stones were so closely fitted together that, as is famously said, a piece of paper cannot be inserted between them. \u00a0Moreover,\u00a0Sacsayhuam\u00e1n has survived several massive earthquakes that laid waste to much of colonial and then modern Cusco.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Big<\/a>
Another (Wikimedia Commons public domain) view of Sacsayhuam\u00e1n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pedro Pizarro, a brother of the same Francisco Pizarro who murdered the last Inca ruler and destroyed the empire, described the structure, which was still intact in his day:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOn top of a hill they [the Inca] had a very strong fort surrounded with masonry walls of stones and having two very high round towers. And in the lower part of this wall there were stones so large and thick that it seemed impossible that human hands could have set them in place . . . they were so close together, and so well fitted, that the point of a pin could not have been inserted in one of the joints. The whole fortress was built up in terraces and flat spaces.\u201d The numerous rooms were \u201cfilled with arms, lances, arrows, darts, clubs,\u00a0bucklers\u00a0and large oblong shields. . . . there were many\u00a0morions. . . . there were also . . . certain stretchers in which the Lords travelled, as in litters.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pedro Pizarro was an eyewitness, and his description is very valuable \u2014 although it must be said that he himself (from what little I\u2019ve read about him) was no better, morally speaking, than his treacherous brother Francisco. \u00a0The Spanish conquest of Peru does not represent Christianity at its finest.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Posted from Cusco, Peru<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 We headed out this morning to look at several very important Inca archaeological sites, beginning with the massive citadel or fortress \u2014 our local guide consistently called it a temple \u2014 of\u00a0Sacsayhuam\u00e1n or\u00a0Saqsaywaman (or just about any roughly similar spelling that you care to choose; it sounds something like \u201csexy woman\u201d) to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSacsayhuam\u00e1n<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    We headed out this morning to look at several very important Inca archaeological sites, beginning with the massive citadel or fortress --\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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