Maukallaqta or Paccaritampu
Just past the town of Yaurisque I caught my first glimpse of Maukallaqta.
I hadn’t been there in over five years but it’s easy to recognize. On a wide, gently sloping hillside dotted with a few queuña trees, the city is unmistakable. (Read my 2019 blog here). Today, only about 20% has been excavated, and if you know where to look, you’ll see faint lines, squares and circles surrounding the city of red walls and a few thatched roofs.
The area I’m standing in to take this photo of Maukallaqta is part of the 80% of the site that’s not yet excavated.
The city was built by Pachacutec, the ninth Inca who ruled 1349-1408.
There were fourteen Incas who ruled much of South America from 1043-1533. Those years vary a bit depending on which historian you’re reading, so consider them estimations rather than facts. (Inca or Sapa Inca is the title of the ruler and the people he ruled over were called by the place they were from).
Maukallaqta means old town in Quechua, and is a name applied to lots of abandoned Inca sites. Though these places were inhabited in the early 1500s, the Spanish brought plague and war, decimating the population and leaving many towns abandoned. It wasn’t until the early 1900s when Hiram Bingham brought the first photographers and archeologists to Machu Picchu, that a global frenzy ignited to find whatever remained of the Inca.
According to archeologist Óscar Montúfar Latorre, if we go back to the first written historical records, this site would have been called Paccaritampu in the 1500s, so that’s the name I’ll use from now on.
Archeologist Óscar Montúfar Latorre (left in blue) and biologist Justo Mantilla Holguin (right in red) led a fascinating training for tour guides, which I was lucky to attend.
Paccaritampu was a whole city built as a monument to the origin story of the Inca.
The Inca Pachacutec built more monuments, temples, palaces and cities than any other Inca. Most of the archeological sites that tourists visit were commissioned during Pachacutec’s reign, including Pisac, Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu. Paccaritampu was built on a hillside across from a cave called Tamputtocco, which was given the name Puma Orqo in the 1900s, when people started calling the city Maukallaqta.
Tamputtocco is the cave where the legendary Ayar brothers emerged, birthed by the Pachamama, Mother Earth and given special powers by the sun. The four brothers emerged with their wives, which were weirdly called sister-wives by the Spanish, perhaps to cast suspicion on the Inca as being incestuous. The Quechua word that describes the four women could possibly be translated as sister, but only in the sense that women from the same village call each other sister. It does not imply that the four women were literal sisters to each other or that they were sisters to their husbands.
Massive doorways like this, with perfect stonework and a double frame, show how sacred the place is.
This is the very brief version of the Inca’s origin story.
The Ayar brothers and their wives are named Ayar Manco and Mama Ocollo, Ayar Cachi and Mama Cora, Ayar Uchu and Mama Rahua, and Ayar Auca and Mama Huaco. They go on an odyssey of sorts, from Tamputtocco through several places, at each place performing some feat or passing some test. One by one, the brothers and their wives are prevented from continuing the quest until only Ayar Manco and Mama Ocollo arrive at Cusco. With a magical wooden staff that has gold inscriptions, Ayar Manco discovers that Cusco is the right place to found his new civilization and because of his divine right, the people of the Cusco valley accept him as their new ruler.
From everything I’ve read about Pachacutec, he was an astute leader, and he undoubtedly understood the power of an origin story, especially one that bestows divine right on the Inca from both the Pachamama and the sun. So, the limestone outcrop above the cave that the Ayar brothers emerged from was covered with carvings and a whole city was built across the valley from the cave to celebrate their story.
I’d love to say that the red stain is from llama blood, but it’s just natural oxidized iron from the stones.
First, we stopped at Tamputtocco.
Óscar led us around the side, where several restored buildings are what’s left of where the site’s caretakers would have lived. These wouldn’t have been simple guards, but the equivalent of priests, there to care for the cave and perform rituals and ceremonies honoring the Ayar brothers.
Then we walked around the bottom where the cave used to be. It has been filled in somewhat by natural causes but also by locals tired of their livestock falling in. A large slab remains near the old entrance, easily big enough to sacrifice a llama, which would have been done only during the most important ceremonies. Climbing up to the top, we found lots of steps and carved spots facing Paccaritampu, plus the remains of two carved pumas. The Spanish chopped off the pumas’ heads in an effort to desecrate the place so people would stop venerating it.
One of the two headless pumas, badly weathered but still with four legs, paws with claws and a tail.
This main doorway at Paccaritampu looks across to Tamputtocco, where the Ayar brothers emerged out of a cave with their wives to found the Inca civilization.
Next, we walked about half an hour to Paccaritampu.
If you’ve been following my adventures in Peru the past five years, you know I’ve been to a lot of Inca cities and sites throughout the country, and as far south as Argentina. The most important places are obvious by the perfectly sculpted stonework, walls that have withstood countless earthquakes in the past 600 years or more. They were built without mortar between the stones, which is probably why they are still standing. Each stone was carved so perfectly that they fit together like legos. The other characteristic of the most sacred places are the gates and doorways that were built with a double jamb, like a frame around each door. This double framing was also used in niches and windows, not just doorways.
These three triple-framed niches face Tamputtocco. The roof is protecting original adobe wall from 700 years ago.
Paccaritampu has nine niches with a triple jamb, like triple framing for whatever sacred object was kept in that niche. There are lots of walls and other doorways made with perfectly sculpted stones, still standing after all these years. Walls that were made with rough stones were covered with clay and painted, so the niches in the photo above would have been smooth clay walls. The colors they used most often for paint were white, yellow and red.
According to Óscar Montúfar Latorre, the triple jamb was only used at places of origin. Paccaritampu is the origin of the Inca. Llama Pukará (aka Waqra Pukará) was the origin of the Chankas. As impressive as Machu Picchu, Ollantaytambo and Pisac are, none of them have triple jamb doorways or niches. They all have plenty of double jambs, leading to important and sacred rooms or areas of the city, but nothing as sacred as Paccaritampu.
Anything that could be sold to illegal antiquities dealers was looted long ago, but they left these clay bases that supported massive ceramics used to ferment chicha, a corn drink.
Paccaritampu is south of Cusco
North of Cusco is the Sacred Valley, which stretches from Pisac in the east to Ollantaytambo in the west, but the founders of the Inca civilization came from the south.
How to get there?
Drive south from Cusco to the town of Yaurisque, which is on the road to Paruro. If you’re taking public transportation, get on a bus to Paruro and then tell the driver you want to get out in Yaurisque.
The turn off the road at Yaurisque has a big red sign for Maukallaqta and from the town plaza there’s another sign for Maukallaqta. Once you leave Yaurisque, you’re on a dirt road, so make sure you have 4WD in the rainy season. They’re currently widening the road and there’s piles of gravel ready for cover, but when I went this week it was slippery clay covering the road.
There’s no entrance fee, but you have to sign in at the gate when you arrive. There are no bathrooms, so stop in Yaurisque before you go to Tamputtocco or Paccaritampu. Bring snacks and water because there’s nowhere to buy stuff after you leave Yaurisque.
These carvings are near the cave at Tamputtocco, though we can only speculate on how they were used.
