Sacsayhuaman
Cusco, Peru
The Inka citadel on the ridge over Cusco, its walls built of interlocked stone blocks weighing up to a hundred tons, and every June 24 the stage of the Inti Raymi sun festival's central act.
Sacsayhuaman crowns the hill directly north of Cusco, its zigzag walls of colossal andesite blocks fitted without mortar so tightly a blade does not fit the joints, raised in the fifteenth century as part of the Inka capital's ceremonial topography. What it was, fortress or temple or both, is argued; the masonry itself is the argument for Inka engineering. Much of the stone was carted off to build colonial Cusco, so the complex reads as ruins today, the towers gone and the esplanade open.
The site stays part of Cusco's living calendar: every June 24 the Inti Raymi festival's principal act is staged on the esplanade, a city-organized revival of the Inka sun ceremony drawing tens of thousands, and Andean ceremonies and gatherings use the esplanade year-round. Access is through the Cusco Tourist Ticket, and the walk up from the Plaza de Armas is about half an hour through the old streets.
Visiting
The Cusco Tourist Ticket's official tariff page lists the full and partial tickets covering the site; the Inti Raymi festival sells its own grandstand tickets for June 24.
Photo: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Associated traditions & practices
Visitor stories