Dear Steemians,
here is the next leg of my journey through Ecuador. After visiting Guyaquil, and having a long by hours, but actually short by distance trip to Canar, that is major Municipal city in the area of Cuenca, next day I decided to drive to the ancient city of Ingapirca.
Ingapirca - the ruins of an Ancient Inca settlement is located on the top of a high hill in the South Andes of Ecuador, 30 km to the East of Canar. The name has Quechua origins and means "Fortress of the Incas".
Some history I got to know about the city.
Before the arrival of the Incas, native Canary people lived in this territory. The Incas did not come here until the end of the 15th century. The struggle for Ingapirca lasted several years. In the end, the Canaries surrendered. Surprisingly, after fierce bloody battles, the winners allowed the Canary to continue to live in these lands.
This was the first place in Ecuador, where I saw llamas. To be honest I thought there should be everywhere llamas in the high mountains, like cows in Bulgaria, but unfortunately the numbers of them are being diminished over the last decades...
Parking lot outside of the ruins.There were many visitors, but on my pics I am showing less crowded places.
There is a small museum right at the gate to the ruins. You can see many artifacts, paintings and sculptures here. I bought a Travel Guide, where I read a lot of interesting info about the Canary people and their culture.
One of my favorite pics. Meadows with the llamas, and on the background you can see the ruins.
The main attraction are the ruins of the Temple of the Sun - the majestic construction of a regular elliptical shape. Temple of the Sun is built in such a way, that during the spring and autumn solstice at a certain time of day, sunlight falls directly into the center of the main door.
A distinctive feature of the buildings, erected by the Incas, is the masonry without the use of a fastening mortar. The stones were processed and adjusted to each other so accurately that even a blade of a knife could not be pierced between them!!!
Citing some info from the Travel Guide, I bought here: After the conquest of the Inca Empire by the Spaniards, Ingapirca was half destroyed and left abandoned until the Ecuadorian government began the process of its restoration in the middle of the twentieth century. Ruins were opened for tourists in 1966.
That's me at the top of the Fortress next to the Temple of the Sun :)
Hope you enjoyed my pics, next week there will be the next and the last part of my trip to Ecuador!!!
In case you missed the first two parts, you can check it here:
