
Panoramic photo of Plaza the Armas, showing the cathedral, the church of Society of Jesus and the central gardens
The city tour continues with a visit to the beautiful Koricancha(Temple of the Sun). Unfortunately the site has been almost completely destroyed by the Spanishes in order to build the nearby Santo Domingo church and convent, and also because ordered by the catholic religion. In the pictures, the church stands above an Inca basement (left picture) and, on the right, the new monastery's courtyard (The Inca ruins are behind the portals).
Sample of Inca architecture. The geometry used is fascinating: Often, doors and windows are perfectly aligned one behind another. They are not only beautiful to see, but also functional, as they are built following severe and effective rules to limit damages from earthquakes (the earthquake that hit Cusco about an half century ago, destroyed many Spanish buildings, but not Inca's).These rules include the inclination of the walls, the trapezoidal shape of doors, windows and walls itself, the accurate cuttingof the stones, which are also joint using a precise / alternate pattern and often firmly tied internal reinforcement (as already seen in Tiahuanaco). Last but not least, the buildings are built over foundations usually one meter deep, made of sand and gravel, in order to compensate and movement.To destroy them, spanishes often had to use the dynamite.
The next stop is on a hill near the suburbs of Cusco where, not only there is a nice view of the city, but also the intersting ruins of Sacsayhuaman. The funtion of this site is currently quite unclear, the researches have several hypotesis, but the most accepted is that it was a fortress to protect Cusco and / or a temple, perhaps the biggest Sun Temple of all.
Here the stone blocks are much more bigger than normal, up to 9x5 meters with a weight of about 500 tons.
It seems that there aren't reliable information about the function of this other site, called Q'enqo. The entire complex has been built excavating internally a huge stone many meters big. The most accepted theory is that it was a religious site, where probably human and animal sacrifices was held (the top-right picture).
The last stop is at Tampu Machay. Also in this case the function of this site is uncertain but, because of the presence of the fountains, it was probably a bath or another temple with religious functions.
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