Ruins, Hikes && Sunsets

This Wednesday morning we woke up around 5:45 am to get ready for our hike up the Ollantaytambo Fortress- another incredible Incan architecture. The ruins didn't open until 7, and because we were there around 6:50 am, we were the first people in and had the whole place to ourselves for at least half an hour! Although we had been trying to catch the sunrise so that we could examine the alignments, the weather didn't cooperate which was a little bit of a let down but nonetheless, we proceeded with our hike. 

The Ollantaytambo Fortress is located nearby the Urubamba River, which we were able to point out when we hiked up high enough. From the top, we could also make out all the different characteristics of the ruins. There were temples, storehouses,agricultural terraces, as well as fountains and also what seems to have been a place for baths. A site with so much usability was surely of great importance to the Incas. I did some research (on this website) on Ollantaytambo and found that the valley was one of the Inca Empire's main points for extracting construction materials in the quarries nearby, as well as the best place for maize cultivation in Peru.

Terrace for agriculture in Ollantaytambo

The most impressing aspect of the ruins, aside from the stone workmanship, is probably the hydraulic expertise that the Inca incorporated in their architecture. Although some important stone pieces were missing, we were still capable of making out which way they redirected the water/energy flow. It was also interesting to see their underground irrigation system which spread from the right to the left of the site. Hubert Chanson briefly talks about Ollantaytambo in his book, The Hydraulics of Stepped Chutes and Spillways, describing them as high altitude staircase farms (up to 3,400 m altitude) with vertical channels and drop structures. Also according to Chanson, drop structures were introduced in areas with a need to dissipate energy flow and to accommodate for a steep topography, which we see is exactly the case of the Ollantaytambo ruins. 

Inca irrigation system and their redirection of water flow is shown

Fortunately for us early risers, we were almost through with the site when it started raining- the weather here has been weird though, raining one minute and then stopping randomly, only to start back up again. 

After lunch we headed out for a short hike up a nearby mountain. We got to see more Inca architecture- but due to the heavy rainfall, we were forced to come back later. It was around 5 pm, when we headed back to watch the sunset, and hopefully make interesting observations about the alignments of the ruins. Although half blinded by the sun, we were able to spot a temple from the Ollantaytambo ruin we had visited earlier that morning, just as the sun set directly behind it. It was really a wonderful sight to see and surely no accident on the Inca part- it was clear, by the glowing of the temple, that the Inca meant for the sun to illuminate it at sunset.

The silhouette of a temple in the distance, being illuminated by the sun at sunset. 

Stay tuned for Machu Picchu!!

Julie