Valle Sagrado (The Sacred Valley)

Valle Sagrado is the name of a section of a valley outside of Cusco that the Incas used as a big part of their civilisation. It is currently an hour´s drive by coach from Cusco. The approach to Valle Sagrado takes one past some of the other Inca ruins that are scattered across the countryside towards this Valley. If one follows the valley further north, one will reach Aguas Calientes which is the name of the little village that has sprung up at the foot of Macchu Picchu in response to tourism. The name of the village translates to ¨Hot waters¨and is so called because of the numerous hot springs there. The Sacred Valley itself is situated around 3000m above sea level.

Old Peruvian farmer with his machete

The Incan civilisation was centred around sun worship. (If my memory serves me right and my spanish translation adequate) The Incas as a result, built a lot of their cities at high points on ridges and mountain tops because they felt that it was necessary to be as close to their god as possible. Each Incan city also had a Sun temple which held the Intihuatana or the "anchoring point of the sun". Apart from their mythological use, these were also believed to be used as sundials which enabled the priests to predict the solstices and ¨have mythological powers¨. The Spanish destroyed almost all of these temples and sundials when they invaded Peru in an attempt to quell pagan worship.

Doorway to Sun Temple, Pisac

The trip to the valley took us to 2 major ruins, Pisac and Ollantaytambo. Pisac (according to our guide) was an important city for religious and political reasons. Its architects were believed to have designed the city in the shape of one of the Incan mythological creatures. In fact, all of the Incan cities were believed to be designed in the shape of animals sacred to the Incas. Cusco in the shape of a Puma, Macchu Picchu in the shape of a Condor and Ollantaytambo in the shape of a Llama.

Local juice vender selling sweet orange juice, Pisac

Ollantaytambo was important to the Incas as a centre for the organisation and storage of food. Below is a photo of part of Ollantaytambo. The hill is believed to hold the image of one of the Incan spirits, Tunupa, carrying a large sack on his shoulder. The face of Tunupa looks to the left of the photo and the huge sack includes the ruins of storage buildings on the hill.

Tunupa

Apart from ruins, the trip to the Sacred Valley also took us to Chincherro, which is a small town at 3600m. Here the locals have learnt to adapt to tourism and have organised themselves into small collectives that promote and educate tourists on the native skills of fabric making. This helps keep their skills alive and also assists in passing them on to the next generation. The lady in this photo was trying to show us how a simple red dye from a fungus that grows on cactus can be changed to different hues of red by either adding salt or lemon juice!

Old skills still alive... not to mention traditional dress too!

The advancement of the Incan civilisation still astounds me as well as the fact that some of these techniques are almost 6-7 centuries old and are still being practiced today!