Another mysterious structure shrouded in many secrets - Sacsayhuaman is located on the outskirts of the ancient capital of the Incas of Cuzco. The fortress rests on an artificially leveled mountain peak and is surrounded by three outer defensive walls, 1,500 feet long and 54 feet wide. In the center of the fortress is a round stone structure - the solar calendar of the great Incas. The ruins also include a huge pool for storing water, barrels for storing supplies, citadels and underground chambers.
The origins of the name "Sacsayhuaman" are unknown. In various dialects it is translated as "Motley Hawk", and "Marble Head", and "Royal Eagle". In Quechua, Saksaywaman is a well-fed hawk. The ruins of Sacsayhuaman are the clearest example of the skill of the Inca builders. There are many versions, sometimes very strange, of the creation of such buildings. According to one of them, the Incas used the sap of plants to dissolve rock. The Spaniards believed that the builders turned to demons for help. Relating to all hypotheses in different ways, one can unequivocally say about one thing: our ancestors possessed much greater knowledge than previously thought.
The construction of Sacsayhuaman, the largest fortress in all of America, is a reflection of the organizational skills of the Inca Pachacuti. The fortress was built of tightly fitted blocks that even modern machines could not budge. The Incas not only brought these huge blocks to the top of the mountain, but also erected three walls from them. Now no one can say how the fortress was built. The construction was completed several decades later, already under the reign of Pachacuti's son, Huayna Kapaka.
Each rampart is 360 meters long and consists of 21 bastions. Some of these bastions have been pushed forward, some have been pushed back. The most powerful is the first fortress wall. It is made up of stone blocks nine meters high, five meters wide, and four meters thick. The walls had several trapezium-shaped gates that could be locked with stone blocks. The fortress had three large towers, which housed troops, whose task was to guard and defend Cuzco. Their conquistadors destroyed immediately - so that they would not become a base for the rebellious Indians.
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In addition to its strategic importance, the fortress played the role of a major religious center. The main ramparts of the structure consist of three zigzag walls, lined up parallel to each other. The interior buildings and towers are made of material delivered over 23 miles. There is a hypothesis that the unusual shape of the walls indicates that the fortress was also a temple dedicated to the god of lightning. It is also noticed that the outlines of Cuzco resemble the figure of a cougar or puma, and Sacsayhuaman has the shape of an animal's head.
One of the largest structures of the fortress is also made in the form of a zigzag, which symbolized the image of a lightning bolt or a snake. Local legend says that the warrior placed his fist in the "head of the snake", which, as Alan Lands-berg wrote, gave him "strength, courage and magical energy to defeat enemies." The writer himself did not believe in such legends until he arrived at this fortress and saw with his own eyes how the needle of the compass, placed in a depression in the wall, “began to rotate madly, as if it had fallen under the influence of an invisible force. Inexplicable magnetism is common in many sacred sites. It is possible that research in this area will provide answers to some questions and explain from a scientific point of view the phenomenon described in the legend.
In the 16th century, Garcilaso de la Vega, in his History of the Inca State, described Sacsayhuaman as follows:
“Its proportions are impossible to imagine until you have seen it; Seen up close and carefully studied, they make such an incredible impression that you begin to think if its structure is connected with some kind of witchcraft. Is it not the creation of humans, but demons? It is built of such huge stones and in such quantities that a lot of questions immediately arise: how did the Indians manage to cut these stones, how were they transported, how were they shaped and placed on top of each other with such precision? After all, they had neither iron nor steel to cut into the rock and hew the stones, there were neither carts nor oxen for transportation. In fact, in the whole world there are no such carts and such oxen, these stones are so large and the mountain roads are so uneven …”Here Garcilaso reports on one interesting circumstance,as already in historical times, the Inca king tried to compare with his predecessors, who built Sacsayhuaman. It was decided to bring another block to strengthen the existing fortification. "Over 20,000 Indians dragged this block over rough terrain, up and down steep slopes … In the end, it escaped from their hands and fell off a cliff, crushing over 3,000 people."
So, the biggest mystery is whether the fortress was actually built by the Incas. As mentioned above, not every modern machine can lift stone blocks of this weight. Is it possible that, like the famous Nazca Lines, Sacsayhuaman was built by a mysterious civilization that existed long before the Inca Empire?