Semana Santa, Day 3: Part IV

A walk outside Cusco in five parts: Qenqo

As we stood atop the stones at Salumpunku we looked east to the old Inca road to Pisac, and Machu Picchu farther on. We decide to leave that adventure for another day and head west back toward town and a few other ruins on the way. We walk for about 20 minutes through pasture land and relatively new plantation of eucalyptus trees. Then we come to another natural stone outcrop that has been carved a shrine called Qenqo (“zig-zag”).

This limestone outcrop has been carefully carved into a waca using the natural shape of the rock. There are several caves; some have what appear to be alters in them. One alter is an Intihuatana, or place for sun worship. Like in the temple of the moon, the altar was aligned in specific locations to maximize the timings of the solstice. During the sunrise on the winter solstice the shadow of a protruding rock casts the image of the face of a puma on the altar. This again becomes a reoccurring theme in many of the Incan ruins we will visit. There are also several rectangular niches carved in the wall were it is supposed that mummies of lesser Cusqueno royalty were kept.

Carved stone steps lead around and to the top of the rock where many intricate and mind boggling carvings are found. There are several animal shapes (snake, puma, condor, and llama) carved in the rock leaving the shadow of the animal in a pool like divot in the rock. This is opposite to the style of relief carving we saw at the temple of the moon. Several Zig Zag channels lead down the rock, some ending in these carved shapes.

One tour guide we “overheard” said that Incans would pour chicha (corn beer) or llama blood into the zig zags, and the direction the liquid took and shapes it filled would predict the next year’s agricultural crop and upcoming weather conditions.