Archaelogical Sites

The main site today was to Ollantaytambo, an ancient city high in the Andes (9,000 feet), dating to pre-Incan times. In the middle of the 15th century, Incan leader Pachacutec essentially destroyed the town (but not the people) to build a temple (the Sun Temple), as well as farms with irrigation and homes, to incorporate it into the Incan Empire. Pachacutec was known as the Alexander the Great of the Incans, a city builder. They used mortise and tenon joints in their construction, resulting in massive stones were perfectly fitted together.

We then moved on to an Incan experimental agricultural “laboratory.” The Incans were interested in adapting crops to a wider range of elevations and climates.Read more