Before I came to Peru, I did not worry too much about the Incas. Maybe I also thought that the last great indigenous civilization would be a bit too much hype before the Spanish conquest ... After all, that's "only" 500, 600 years ago, and there were other, similarly sized, older cultures here.
That may be true, but now, after seeing half a dozen other Inca installations, I must say that the fascination of the Inca is justified. They have already built some very clever and very impressive things!
Unfortunately, one does not know as much about the Inca (as one could), as the Conquistadors have taken great care not to leave any stone of the Inca on the other. And from that churches, churches, churches have built. Which are of course very nice, but just ... Well.
For example, in Moray, there may have been an Inca experimental facility to study different microclimates and their impact on agriculture. The layout of the terraces is too complicated to describe in words, but you see it in the pictures.
We made a hiking day out of Moray and went back to the Sacred Valley (the Urubamba Valley) via Maras and the salt terraces there.
We stayed there for two nights in Ollantaytambo, the only town that was preserved as it was built by the Incas, with narrow streets between the houses, several houses always integrated into a complex and the irrigation system. A very beautiful place, which also has an impressive defensive ruin (and place of the last small victory of the Incas against the Spaniards).
Near Cusco we made another hike and saw four other facilities there. The most impressive of these is Sacsaywaman, which played an important role in the recent battles of the Incas against the Spaniards.
In addition, from there you have a top view on Cusco, the capital of the Inca Empire and today the capital of Peruvian tourism.
Cusco is a beautiful city where you can spend days visiting churches. Unfortunately, photography is prohibited everywhere. Therefore, at the end of the picture gallery you will find a few impressions of Cusco, especially the beautiful central square with the cathedral (which actually consists of three churches, one of the oldest in South America).
The cleverness of the Incas is also evident in Cusco: after major earthquakes, only the foundations of the Inca period have repeatedly stopped there. The premium buildings had been built with stones according to the Lego principle, which then results in walls that are not so easy to break down ...
