Peru 2015

The first part of the vast fortress. Crossing it, one gets to a large circular ceremonial area and then the business part of the fortress.

I may be down here, but the grass is so much better up there, really.

I don't know if the Incas, young or old, had figured this out, but modern kids slide down these very slick surfaces. However, the deep groves tell us that these sliding rocks have been used like this for a very long time.

There it is, the business end of Saqsaywaman. A brilliantly designed fortress that would have withstood any medieval-style attack. The history goes like this. The fiercest battles of Inca versus Conquistadors took place here. Cuzco had been taken and held by the Spanish forces was surrounded and placed under siege by the Incas. Having run out of supplies, the Spanish were just about ready to surrender, when one man proposed a cavalry charge. A final desperate move to break the stranglehold around Cuzco. It was approved and 50 men rode out of the gate and charged uphill at the Inca. They broke through and then continued to drive the thousands of warriors ahead of them toward Saqsaywaman. The Incas regrouped there but by then the Spaniards, now free to move again, hitched horses to cannons and came here. Most of the Incas were behind the massive walls you see here, but the Spaniards needed the high ground, where I am standing, for their cannons. They were out of bow and arrow range and free to pound the fortress mercilessly. When the smoke cleared, they found several thousand dead warriors behind those walls. The fortress had fallen and the Spanish Empire won the day, the war, and the continent. The strength of the Inca kings was broken.

A gate from which to conduct sorties against an attacking force

Atop the first wall. A wall that will stand for millennia and has visitors stand in awe. How they moved and fitted these massive rocks is truly something to contemplate.

The view toward Cuzco from the lowest part of the fortress

From here it is just about a 10 minute walk to the grand plaza, which you see on the right

I pieced this map together to give an idea of the extent of this huge fortress. At the very bottom the walk, toward the left, that leads to Cuzco


A tiny explorer	And a not so tiny one. She was walking with friends, saw me, stopped, ran to me, leaned against me and had our picture taken. My young Inca bride :-), as she was bouncing away, I stopped her, held up my camera and she quickly posed for me. She put the 'sexy woman' into Saqsaywaman for me.