Sacsayhuamán: The Great Fortress Above Cusco
Sacsayhuamán (also spelled Sacsahuamán or Saksaq Waman, “the speckled hawk”) is a large fortified and ceremonial complex on a hilltop ridge immediately north of the city of Cusco, at an elevation of approximately 3,700 meters. Built in the imperial style of the Inca state, the complex consists of three sequential terraced walls that follow the natural contours of the ridge, an extensive ceremonial plaza, internal buildings, a network of storage rooms, an elaborate system of water supply, and a sequence of towers that the chroniclers described as a “triple row.” Sacsayhuamán is conventionally identified as the head of the puma on which imperial Cusco was laid out, and it is one of the most ambitious and most studied examples of Inca architecture anywhere in the Andes.
The setting and the imperial context
The Sacsayhuamán ridge runs roughly east–west for approximately 600 meters and rises about 200 meters above the floor of the Cusco basin. The site commands the entire valley of the Huatanay River and provides a clear view in all directions, including of the Sacred Valley to the northwest. The ridge was originally occupied by a small Killke settlement, traces of which have been excavated in the lower terraces, and was transformed into an imperial complex during the reign of the ninth Sapa Inca, Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, in the mid-fifteenth century, after his military victory over the Chanka in 1438.
Construction is conventionally dated c. 1450 and is attributed in the chronicles to Pachacuti and his successors, principally Túpac Inca Yupanqui and Huayna Capac. Garcilaso de la Vega, writing in the early seventeenth century, reports that 20,000 laborers worked on the complex at any one time and that the building project took several decades to complete. Modern estimates, drawn from archaeological and architectural studies, generally accept a continuous building program of about 30 to 50 years. The construction was carried out by the mit’a system, in which communities across the empire were required to send a proportion of their adult male population to work for the state, and the quarrying, transport, and cutting of the cyclopean and polygonal stones of the complex required a coordination of labor and logistics on a scale unique in the pre-Columbian Andes.
The three great walls
The most prominent feature of Sacsayhuamán is a sequence of three terraced walls that follow the contours of the ridge in a zigzag line, with projecting bastions that allow defenders to direct enfilading fire along the front of each wall. The walls are arranged one above the other on the slope, separated by platforms that are themselves built of large polygonal stones and that can carry troops and storage buildings.
The lower wall, sometimes called the first wall, is built of cyclopean andesite blocks, the largest of which is estimated to weigh between 120 and 200 tons. These enormous blocks form the most striking feature of the lower terrace, and the most famous single block, the Sayri Titi, measures approximately 8.5 by 4.5 by 4 meters; modern volumetric estimates put its weight at roughly 120 to 140 tons. The middle and upper walls are built of smaller, more finely dressed polygonal stones, and the largest three stones of the Rumihuasi, which form part of the upper terrace, are estimated to weigh between 120 and 200 tons apiece. The joints between adjacent blocks are so close that a thin blade cannot be inserted into them, and the stones have withstood more than 500 years of weathering, seismic events, and deliberate dismantling.
The construction sequence has been clarified by archaeological work carried out by the Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco and by international projects. The lower cyclopean course was laid first, using stones dragged on log rollers from quarries several kilometers away, and the upper polygonal courses were added later, perhaps as late as the reign of Huayna Capac in the early sixteenth century. The pattern is consistent with the practice, found elsewhere in the imperial core, of completing a fortification in successive stages over a period of several generations.
The towers, the plaza, and the internal buildings
The chronicles describe Sacsayhuamán as having three rows of towers, and the surviving remains include the foundations and lower courses of at least three of these towers. The towers, which were built of polygonal stones, are believed to have been of two or three stories in height, with internal wooden beams, thatched roofs, and exterior decorations. The most visible surviving foundation, on the upper terrace, includes a curved polygonal wall and a sequence of doorways that align with views to Cusco and to the surrounding huacas.
Below the walls, on the south side of the ridge, lies the great plaza of Muyu Murco, an open ceremonial space of approximately 4 hectares used for reviews of troops, ritual dances, and the principal ceremonies of the imperial cult. The plaza is bounded by the lower wall of the fortress on its northern side and by a sequence of smaller buildings on its southern side, including the so-called “throne” of the Inca, a carved limestone seat set on a small platform. Other buildings around the plaza include storage rooms, an ushnu (a ceremonial platform from which the Sapa Inca addressed the people), and several structures of uncertain function that have been identified by archaeologists as possible aqllawasi (houses of the chosen women) or tambo (lodging) buildings.
The complex also includes an elaborate hydraulic system. A stone-lined canal, the Chaquillchaca, brought water from a spring on the slopes above the fortress to a sequence of fountains and basins within the complex, and a network of channels distributed water to the lower terraces and to a series of internal storerooms. The system was used for drinking water, for ritual ablutions, and for the cleaning of the ceremonial plaza.
The role of Sacsayhuamán in the conquest
Sacsayhuamán played a central role in the early years of the Spanish conquest. When Francisco Pizarro and his allies entered Cusco in November 1533, the city was handed over by Manco Inca, who had allied with the Spanish against the faction loyal to the recently executed Atahualpa. The fortress above the city remained a focus of tension, and during Manco Inca’s rebellion of 1536 the complex was seized by Inca forces and used as the main platform for attacks on the Spanish garrison in Cusco. The Spanish counter-attack culminated in a violent assault on the lower walls in May 1536, in which Juan Pizarro, the youngest of the Pizarro brothers, was killed. The Spanish were unable to retake the upper fortress until 1537, when the towers were destroyed by artillery and the surviving defenders withdrew to the jungle stronghold of Vilcabamba. The Spanish then began the systematic dismantling of the complex, and many of the smaller polygonal stones of the upper walls were reused in the colonial construction of Cusco, including the cathedral and the church of San Francisco.