Day 6 in Cuzco
As I had given in and gone shopping with my colleagues, they had to oblige and off we went to visit Sacred Valley. There is only one town on earth where time stood still, that town is Ollantaytambo, the living Inka city located in the Sacred Valley. The Inkas used to plan their cities carefully, and even make models of the so planned cities, carved in big stone blocks (beautiful pieces of city models can be found in the many site museums around the city of Cuzco). Ollantaytambo is one of the few cities that still maintain the urban-Incan planning. The town is alive due to the fact that its inhabitants actually live in the ancient houses that were built centuries ago. They welcome the visitors that come to admire the living ruins of this ancient town.
The fortress-city was surrounded by a wall with pukaras (watching points). The main edification is the Royal House of the Sun, and the whole complex is truly amazing. How on earth ancient Inkas managed to sculpt the stone into shape and build such portents remains still unknown. Hyatt & Verril, in America’s Ancient Civilizations say as follows:
"How were such titanic blocks of stone brought to the top of the mountain from the quarries many miles away? How were they cut and fitted? How were they raised and put in place? No one knows, no one can even guess. There are archaeologists, scientists, who would have us believe that the dense, hard andesite rock was cut, surfaced and faced by means of stone or bronze tools. Such an explanation is so utterly preposterous that it is not even worthy of serious consideration. No one ever has found anywhere any stone tool or implement that would cut or chip the andesite, and no bronze ever made will make any impression upon it."
~ December 2, 2006~
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