Ollantaytambo Terraces and Temples
Unlike Pisac, the residential quarters were in the valley. The structures atop the rocky spur, which was drastically modified to create the appropriate setting, were ceremonial, religious buildings, and they were never completed. Since Pachacuti died around 1471, some fifty years before the arrival of the Spanish, the estate was technically owned and managed by and for his panaca or descendants. At one time, there were around 1,000 workers on the estate, but none of the sources I’ve read speak to its status before Manco Inca arrived after initiating his rebellion in Cusco and retreating to here in July 1536 when Sacsayhuaman was lost to the Pizarros.
Agricultural Terraces of Pumatallis at Ollantaytambo
Remember my post on the battle over Cusco (November 19th)? Here, I take up that story again.
Manco Inca set up his headquarters at Ollantaytambo while part of his army continued to lay siege to Cusco and one of his best generals, Quizo Yupanqui, set about insuring Francisco Pizarro could not send reinforcements from Lima with an ultimate goal of routing Francisco Pizarro out of Lima. Manco quickly turned the rural estate into a fortress.
Ollantaytambo--Funerary Sector
Note the incredible amount of work that must have gone into carving out the steps and smoothing the walls.
Hand-smoothed Walls at Ollantaytambo
When Hernando Pizarro pursued Manco to Ollantaytambo with 100 Spanish soldiers (70 calvary and 30 infantry) and 30,000 native allies, his forces encountered a stronghold filled with 30,000 soldiers, many of them Antis from the jungles armed with bows and arrows. Using slingshots and bows to hurl rocks and arrows from terraces about a quarter-mile to the east of those shown here, Manco’s warriors fought off the Spanish. Meanwhile, he had the dams used to channel water from the river into the valley’s irrigation system destroyed, so that the Spanish horses lost their maneuverability in the rising water. They barely managed to escape from the valley and never re-attempted a takeover of Ollantaytambo.
Of course, within a few months, Almagro returned to Cusco, and both he and Hernando were more interested in wooing Manco’s support in their struggle to gain control of each other. Sometime in 1537, Manco decided neither faction could be trusted and that his situation was so precarious he’d be safer in the jungle at Vilcabamba and abandoned Ollantaytambo. Once the Pizarros eliminated Almagro, they pursued Manco, who again managed to escape, but his wife did not. The Pizarros took her back to Ollantaytambo where they tortured and killed her, and then sent her body down the river to let Manco know what they had done.
For some reason, perhaps because the residential area was on the valley plains and not in a defensible, hillside position, Ollantaytambo remained inhabited and now proudly boasts that it has some of the oldest continuously occupied dwellings in South America.
The following view, taken from the funerary sector looking across the terraces to the temple sector, depicts several features worthy of further discussion–the Enclosure of the Ten Niches on the uppermost terrace level and the incomplete Temple of the Sun at the upper right where the people are standing. Note the massive, partially cut stones that litter the unfinished site.
To the right of the ten niches is the Wall of the Unfinished Gate.
Enclosure of the Ten Niches and the Wall of the Unfinished Gate
No one knows where the doorway would have led.
Wall of the Unfinished Gate
This wall and those of this set of terraces were constructed using a unique form of masonry not found anywhere else. Named scutiform masonry by Harthe-terre, many of the stones have tails that project into the joint in the course below. Compare these walls with those of the Enclosure of Ten Niches, where there are no such tails.
Note the difference in masonry between the Enclosure of the Ten Niches and the other walls
As Jean-Pierre Protzen notes in his book on Inca Architecture and Construction at Ollantaytambo, this site, due to its work-in-progress nature, provides an unparalleled opportunity for studying Inca construction methods. Many of the stones that appear destined for the Sun Temple were being re-cycled, but there is nothing to indicate what the original structure was or where it was located.
Partially worked stones and the north wall of the Sun Temple
Here’s an even closer look at the really odd north wall. Note the crude rubble fill between the obviously recycled stones,
North Wall of Sun Temple
and compare it to the exquisite, cyclopean Wall of Six Monoliths which faces towards the people standing on the left.
Wall of Six Monoliths
I don’t remember where I saw the following stockpile of building material, so I can’t connect them to Protzen’s diagrams.
Niches in Waiting? Discards? Leftovers?
On the plain below the Fortress, I found this beautiful fountain, which is still working.
