The main reason for visiting Cusco was not to explore the city itself, although we did manage to keep busy, but was to visit various ruins and sites spread among the Sacred Valley. The valley is set in the Andes Mountains and contains the Urubamba river. It is most famous for the plethora of Incan ruins found amongst the mountains and there are many tours that you can take to visit these different ruins. During our time in Cusco, we took two tours to the Sacred Valley – one on the way to Machu Picchu and another half day to the east and south of the city. On each tour, we visited three locations where our guide explained the history, importance, and culture to us.

A view of the Sacred Valley from Pisaq.

Pisaq

In Pisaq, the Incan ruins are situated at the top of a large hill overlooking the modern-day city. The old city and terraces were built for three reasons: agriculture, religion, and military. The terraces provided flat land for farmers to cultivate corn and quinoa, the two staples of Incan diet. One interesting aspect of Pisaq is the cemetery, made up of holes in the side of the mountain. When someone died, their body would be moved into a fetal position and placed inside of a hole by a priest. They believed that when you died, your body would be absorbed back into Mother Earth and you could then be reborn. There are holes that dot the side of the mountain in Pisaq where approximately 10,000 people were buried over the course of a couple hundred years.

We had some free time to walk around the terraces after the guided portion of our tour at Pisaq.

All of these holes were carved into the side of the mountain as tombs for the Incans.

Urubamba

Urubamba is a large town in the Sacred Valley and is where we ate lunch during one of our tours. Our lunch was a buffet with a mix of American and Peruvian food. What made the lunch special was the setting; the restaurant was located at the base of a mountain and was home to several animals, specifically three parrots and a group of alpacas and llamas. After we finished eating, we could walk in the field and pet a couple of the animals. Their caretaker, who had just given them lunch, told us the names of two that we petted – a brown and white alpaca named Elena and a white baby llama named Julio. Their fur was extremely soft and they didn’t pay us any attention as they ate their lunches. On our way out of the restaurant, we walked past the parrots who whistled and said “Hola” and “Mama.”

Lana petting Elena the alpaca.

Jon petting Julio the llama.

Ollantaytambo

Ollantaytambo is the jumping off point for many who trek to Machu Picchu. However, we spent a couple hours in the city walking around the ruins before taking the train to Machu Picchu. The ruins are at the base of a mountain and there are terraces that climb the side of the mountain. Ollantaytambo was never finished by the Incas, as the Spanish conquered before the city could be completed. On the mountain facing the main part of the ruins are storehouses, which are built into the rock to provide shelter for food and grains from the wind. In the old city ruins, some structures are still standing such as the Temple of Water, through which a small stream still runs.

The Temple of Water in Ollantaytambo still had a functioning fountain, over 500 years later.

If you look on the side of the mountain, you can see where the storehouses were for grains and food.

Tipon

The original name of this ruin is not known, but the name of Tipon was given by archeologists after research into a lost palace in the area. What remains of Tipon are terraces and irrigation canals and it is assumed that the site was used as a sort of laboratory for agricultural products. The Incas would bring seeds from other parts of Peru to Tipon and use the terraces to grow and acclimatize the crop, so they could then be planted elsewhere in the higher elevation of the Sacred Valley. A large irrigation system was used and is still functioning today, with a natural spring feeding the water from underground. Tipon was my favorite of the sites that we visited within the Sacred Valley, primarily due to the irrigation system still visible but also since it was more remote and less crowded than the others.

My favorite site that we toured was Tipon, known for experimental agriculture and irrigation.

The irrigation system at Tipon is still running from the spring located in the mountain.

Andahuaylillas

Andahuaylillas is a city in the south of the Sacred Valley where we stopped for about an hour during one of our tours. The main attraction is a baroque church with frescos, although Jon and I chose not to go in as it was not included in the price of our tour. Instead, we sat outside on the church steps and watched a festival taking place in the main square – a festival dedicated to Pachamama, or Mother Earth. Since Andahuaylillas is comprised of native Quechua people, a majority of the speeches and presentations were in the Quechua language, not in Spanish. While we couldn’t understand what was being said, we did enjoy the dancing and native outfits being worn.

Men and women joined in one of the dances in Andahuaylillas.

Many of the women in Andahuaylillas had long braids and colorful skirts.

Pikillaqta

Pikillaqta was the one non-Incan site that we visited while touring the Sacred Valley. It was built by the Wari people, who lived in Peru between 600 – 1000 AD. There are a few unique aspects to Pikillaqta that are not found in other ruins nearby. One of these is the layout of the city; the Wari people had city planners who constructed a city around a main plaza with each district around it being given to one of the leaders. There are roads that are still visible and stretch for a couple kilometers in places. The Wari also had two- and three-story buildings, although none are standing today. Archeologists and historians guess that the site of Pikillaqta was used for large ceremonies and feasts, since there was a large patio area and many buildings with fireplaces that would have been used to prepare meals.

We walked along one of the roads in Pikillaqta.

The roads stretched far into the countryside.

Summary

Jon and I had naively assumed that Machu Picchu would be the main focus of our time in Cusco. While it is an incredible place (and deserves its own blog post!), I would say that we enjoyed exploring the lesser-known ruins and sites in the Sacred Valley just as much. It provided us the opportunity to learn even more about the Incan people and culture as well as some others we had never heard of before. We ventured outside of Cusco and saw the beautiful countryside and learned a lot about the region and its history. I’m happy that we took the time to see more than just Machu Picchu within the Sacred Valley as I liked seeing the different types of ruins scattered around the region.

A view over the sacred Valley from Tipon.