More pictures near the top of Ollantaytambo

This is a trail leading to different locations near the top. The "railing" was recently added because of some tourist deaths. Bad for tourism. I took a video with my camera, I'll try to send it also.

They believe that these blocks were cut from a quarry 6 miles over the mountain to the left of this photo, taken across the river in the background - a tributary of the Amazon, and then hauled up ramps. This ramp and several like it are still visible heading to the river. Remember they had no "wheels" so probably rolled them on logs.

Look at the size of these boulders near the top. Each weigh 150-200 tons. The small rocks between them allow for shifting of the huge stones. These were put together with brass "keys", needed for stability. Only problem is, the Incas did not use keys to hold their blocks together, they didn't need to with their precision.
Soooo, these stones were not placed here by the Incas but some "tribe" who was here BEFORE the Incas. The Incas actually built on an existing site. On the small block lying down, you can see where the key went.

Most of these structures were astronomical observatories as much as anything. Kind of hard to explain, but see the protrusions? On June 21, the beginning of Winter Soltice here, the shadows from one of the protrusions points directly to the other protrusion. Only day of the year it happens. You find this in many places in these structures. They knew what they were doing.

The second picture is a group of kids, walking along, joking, pushing and shoving, like kids. But notice how close they are to the edge and paying no attention to it at all. It is at least a 500 to 1000 foot drop straight down.

First two photos, look at the precision used in placing these blocks together. There is no gap between the stones, none. Then photos near the top.

Now to Ollantaytambo. First two photos are the terraces going up. Next two photos are the trail going up.

Still looking across. Like to live up there Joeline?

Next stop was Ollantaytambo. Tremendous structure. Very high on a mountain, naturally. Huge terraces, helped support the weight of the huge stones which were hauled up there. Supposedly was a very holy place, with "houses" for a lot of priests and guards.
These first photos are looking across the valley to a mountain where the lesser priests lived. How they daily got up and down from there is my question. Some of the photos are using telephoto, others are normal shots, so you can see the height, etc. But all photos in this group are looking across.

We stopped to eat lunch at this very nice "hotel".

I have to tell you this short story in the middle of the pictures. I have been in Bolivia since July 22 (on a 30 day visa). Since that date the school has been in the process of getting my, and all my American teachers, a year work visa. We finally hired a Facilitator - basically he goes around and bribes officials. Anyway I kept telling him I was leaving on Nov. 26 for Machu. Oh, no problemo, is all I got in return.
Finally on Monday, Nov.24 I started to get desperate. I called him in, reminded him that I signed the checks and that he was not getting paid if I did not get my Visa by the 26th.
Toa make a very long story short on the 26th. at 11 am I am sitting in the Immigration Office with him, waiting for someone to give me the Visa (by the way, they also had my passport)
Finally I get the visa and passport with just enough time for me to make it to the airport.
I fly to LaPaz. When I try to get my ticket in LaPaz Customs (Immigration, whoever they are) turns me away. Looked at my Visa, said NO, and shushed me away. The line was a mile long and I was not going to be "shushed" anywhere. I pointed to my visa, he said NO, tried to wait on the next person, and so on.
I would not let the next person come forward and I wasn't leaving. He kept saying -well who knows what he was saying, but NO was in there a lot. I just kept saying YES.
Finally he called in the cops! A policeman, in full gear, flak tacket, shotgun, etc. came up. The ticket man kept making handcuff motions, evidently trying to warn me I was going to be cuffed.
Anyway, everyone was getting some free entertainment.
At this point I began to wonder if going to Machu was quite as important as I had originally planned.
Actually I decided it was.
After a few very tense minutes - with the cop keeping one hand on the shotgun - he finally decided to look at the passport and visa I kept trying to show him.
Ten minutes later he went behind the counter, pasted another paper in my passport and sent me on my way.

Whew

Ok, I quit for tonight. The best fortress, as far as I am concerned, outside of Machu is still to come.

More views from same site
REMEMBER I AM WORKING BACKWARD SO YOU GO TO THE POST AFTER THIS ONE BECAUSE ITS REALLY THE POST BEFORE THIS ONE - UNDERSTAND?

Notice the edge Joeline.
Other views of this site

This place is called Pisaq.
There was a very sacred building on the top to worship the sun. Priests lived here, plus guards, evidently people came from all over to worship here. The terraces serve a variety of purposes - growing, prevention of errosion, defense, etc. Idiot guide wasn't sure how they were defensive though. Evidently good guides are hard to get. Tourism is so huge that they do not have sufficient good guides to take all the groups. Two of the three days I had guides who were idiots. I swear I knew more about the places than they did.
Anyway you climb forever to get to this place
846 is the terraces
850 is about half way up
860 is about 3/4.
No rails on the trails. better watch your step, long way down
865 is looking down on the residential section for the guards

following place is called Tambomachay

This is a sacred site where they worshiped the water god. what is impressive is that that spring has been running for over 1000 years. they built the walls around it to complement it, and did not spoil the beauty of the place with the building

a little of the Peruvian countryside outside of Cuzco
we stopped for a break, everyone else shopped, but I sat down by these kids and helped them feed the llamas grass. we had a ball, kids were at first afraid to come near me, by the time I left they knew my name and i knew theirs and we were "friends"

Just outside Cuzco is a fortress that was built to defend the city. It is called SAQSAYWAMAN It supposedly had 10,000 Incan warriors there.
For the last 80 or so years the people of Cuzco have been removing the stones to built houses, etc. and before that the Spanish destroyed as much as they could. so only a small portion of the fortress is left. but look what is left and try to imagine how big this megalith was.
some of those stones are over 20 feet high, weight 130 tons or more.