Here is where the Inkas fought their last stand against the Spanish invasion. The town has not changed since the Empire fell.
The enormous pink stone's were quarried 12 kilometers away atop a 1000 meter hillside, dragged down the mountain side, across a raging river and drug up to the fortress to create what was to be the temple of the sun. Construction was abandoned when the Spanish forces invaded the town and the stones lay exactly how they were the day of the battle at Ollytaytambo.
Some of these stones are the size of a small bus and one was clearly being raised into place to complete the southern wall of the temple.
This site is one of the most important because it gave scientists a window into the past of Inkan construction methods.
The king flooded the plains below the ruins by diverting a river in order to render the Spanish horse cavalry in effective and they defeated the invaders and drove them back to the already captured capital city of Cuzco where the final revolt against the Spanish was fought and sadly lost to the more dominant and technologically advanced Spanish army.
Although Machu Pichu is the "crown jewel" of the region, Ollytaytambo is considered the most important set of ruins and towns by researchers as well as revered by the locals because of its historical importance.
The enormous pink stone's were quarried 12 kilometers away atop a 1000 meter hillside, dragged down the mountain side, across a raging river and drug up to the fortress to create what was to be the temple of the sun. Construction was abandoned when the Spanish forces invaded the town and the stones lay exactly how they were the day of the battle at Ollytaytambo.
Some of these stones are the size of a small bus and one was clearly being raised into place to complete the southern wall of the temple.
This site is one of the most important because it gave scientists a window into the past of Inkan construction methods.
The king flooded the plains below the ruins by diverting a river in order to render the Spanish horse cavalry in effective and they defeated the invaders and drove them back to the already captured capital city of Cuzco where the final revolt against the Spanish was fought and sadly lost to the more dominant and technologically advanced Spanish army.
Although Machu Pichu is the "crown jewel" of the region, Ollytaytambo is considered the most important set of ruins and towns by researchers as well as revered by the locals because of its historical importance.
