Sacsayhuaman in Peru

One of the great mysteries of the world - how did they build it with corner stones weighing over 120 tons?

Spelling variations of the name include Saksaywaman, Sacsahuaman, and Saxahuaman, amongst others) but it is pronounced like “sexy woman” in the Quechuan tongue - the original Peruvian language before the Spanish invaders arrived.

We flew from Berlin, Germany via Madrid and Lima to Cusco to arrive on the 26th December 2021, and visited on the 27th December.

Sacsayhuaman forms the head of a puma shape, the body was formed by 2 rivers, which are now underground, but you can see the shape still by the streets in Cusco - our guide pointed them out for us.

The ruins include three different levels of zig-zagging walls, that could represent the teeth of the Puma

I took this photo of the puma embedded in a Cusco street not far from Plaza del Armas.

We walked from Plaza del Armas uphill to the entrance to the ruins, and found a local guy standing by a closed ticket office. He offered to guide us around the site for 40 Sol (I paid 50 sol in the end, about €10 for about 1.5 hours), and so we accepted so as to not miss out on anything, despite having read up about the site and watched many documentaries ahead of our visit - and we were really glad we did hire him, despite his english not always being the best. He had a folder of photos to illustrate his points as we walked, and several articles such as examples of the dried potatoes the Inkas stored for up to 20 years and rehydrated with water and sun to get them through rough agricultural periods. He told us that 8% of the approx 200 potato breeds are too toxic and inedible, because those are the types which can be rehydrated in this manner.

The actual ticket office is closer to the site, after some brutal uphill stairs (remember it's at high altitude, and we both suffered altitude headaches, not to mention a brutal sunscreen after the damn masks had rubbed it all of our noses - tip, wear factor 30 and a hat!).

We heard a rumour that you can buy a ticket just for this site, but at the ticket entrance, mostly they claim that only the 70 SOL 4-site ticket is available. They also did that to us later at Ollyantaytambo, when we only wanted to see that one site. Apparently the 1-site ticket is 40 Sol.

Our guide told us that the 3 different levels of zig-zag walls represent the Inca religious symbolism of the Underworld (Snake), the Earth (Puma) and the Heavens (Condor). The first level of walls are the most impressive as they comprise massive boulders. Besides the megalithic size of the boulders, the different shaped stones are fitted precisely, without the use of mortar and "no blade of glass, paper or steel can slide between them". At the top level there are remnants of a circular tower or a water tower? and other buildings. Some theories say that the stone was quarried from a site a few km away, but our guide says that the many slaves who built the site quarried them on this site, and used gravity and poles to support the boulders as they rolled them down hill and supported them to work the edges to fit perfectly, and to be honest, that makes the most sense of anything I've heard, especially since the builders didn't have 'the wheel' apparently.

Our guide also told us that these walls, rather than being defensive, represent the Chakana or Inca cross (a 3-step shape you see cut into the Hakas, and the Peruvian necklaces with steps around the outside and the hole in the middle like the symbol in the centre of this plaque.