From Cusco: Ollantaytambo Fortress Half-Day Private Tour – Cusco, Peru

EXPERIENCE:

Accompanied by your guide, today you will venture to climb the 150 steps that separate the summit from the low part of the Ollantaytambo fortress, in which the Temple of the Sun (formed by six huge monoliths of pink granite, with a weight of more than 50 tons) and the Terrace of the Ten Niches stand out. Its cobbled and winding streets, the ruins scattered everywhere and its agricultural terraces are attractions that stand out in themselves and the visitor can appreciate it in all its splendor.

Ollantaytambo was a strategic military, religious and agricultural center that still dazzles with its stone-worked platforms and its imposing buildings over four meters high. In this place, Manco Inca faced the Spanish troops of Hernando Pizarro and was victorious. Located 80 km from the city of Cusco -in the province of Urubamba- and 40 km from Machu Picchu, this archaeological zone preserves over time its houses, streets and canals from the Tahuantinsuyo era.

The half day excursion ends with a short visit to the Ollantaytambo town, a typical example of the urban planning of the Incas, whose residents still live in accordance with their old traditions. Its narrow streets open towards the Urubamba River.

Each block or court is made up of a group of houses that share the same door to the central patio. In the town there is distribution of rectilinear and narrow streets, which are inhabited, uninterruptedly, since the time of the Incas.

TOUR HIGHLIGHTS:

Explore stunning Inca sites within the Sacred Valley at leisure.
Step back in time through the cobblestone streets, ruins and quaint shops of Ollantaytambo.
The inhabitants of Ollantaytambo still maintain traditions inherited from their Inca ancestors.
The word Ollantaytambo derives from the Quechua word ‘Ulla-nta-wi’ which means “place to see down”
The Ollantaytambo archaeological complex was a religious, military and agricultural center.

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