In The Land Of The Incas: The Secrets Of The Sacred Valley

There’s no way we want to rush through El Valle Sagrada, the Sacred Valley, in the way that many seem to do. Some call in briefly if opting for the bus/train combo rather than the full length train journey in order to speed up the journey to Machu Picchu, and, much worse, it’s even possible to do a one-day excursion from Cusco which, given the distances and the number of sites involved, must be both a long day and a rushed agenda. 

Rather than either of these, we decide that after first embracing Machu Picchu we will take a few days to explore this magnificent valley which was the spiritual core of the giant Inca empire. So it is that we leave Aguas Calientes on another Peru Rail train but this time travel for only ninety minutes or so before disembarking in the village of Ollantaytambo. It’s thought provoking to reflect on how popularity has changed Aguas Calientes, and indeed Machu Picchu itself, as the horns of the trains echo from the mountain walls regularly throughout the day, hauling more visitors to and from the world famous site.

Ollantaytambo on the other hand is a much more modest place even if still a significant stopping point. Only a relatively small village, it is so ridiculously attractive that it’s a little hard to comprehend that virtually all of its charming features were built not for tourism but for practical reasons, from the agricultural style buildings on unmade roads to the narrow gulleys which channel waters from the mountainsides down to the Urubamba.

Water is everywhere in Ollantaytambo, cascading through the archeological site, through the village centre, down the middle of cobbled streets and beneath and between houses. Multiple channels race with fast flowing water, bringing the sweet voice of babbling brook and the crashing guitars of white water together in perfect harmony. The largest and loudest of them all tumbles noisily down the hillside right outside our window.

Once again the Andes Mountains surrounding us are colossal, soaring above the village and the valley in a place where Mother Nature dominates mankind. As we stand high up on a mountainside mirador looking down to where the village fills a space granted by the Andes, the equation between mankind’s influence and the power of nature casts a wholly different perspective from the norm. Mankind doesn’t rule here. Little wonder the Incas declared this their Sacred Valley.

But Ollantaytambo is more than a village, it is home to another cluster of the Sacred Valley’s major Inca sites – in fact, the village predates the Incas by a significant period, thought to have been occupied for 3,500 years. Exploring the temples, terraces and grain storage houses on the surrounding mountainsides is almost as thrilling as Machu Picchu itself, a stirring and spellbinding set of relics in its own right – yet, as we are to discover, the Sacred Valley has still more to offer beyond the confines of Ollantaytambo.

Rene, our host in the house beside the river, doubles (trebles?) up as host, driver and guide, and our exploration of the Sacred Valley continues in the company of someone who has lived here all his life, who as a Quechua by birth is a direct descendant of the Incas and who still holds many of the Inca beliefs close to his heart. He is keen to take us to the most sacred places.

During the time we spend with Rene and the time we spend exploring alone, we see so many historic and sacred places that there are too many to record in this text, so we’ll limit this post to the absolute highlights, those that took our breath away even more than the rest. We’ll start with the remarkable circular terraces of Moray. Built into a succession of deep depressions within the earth – it’s unclear whether these depressions were natural or manmade – the terraces form stepped circles which, due to the angle of the sun and the graduating altitude of the terraces, created individual micro climates within which different crops thrived at different levels. 

The sweeping curves of the terrace walls are remarkably symmetrical, and the cascading irrigation system is a commendable feat of engineering. Each slope has seven tiers, which Rene states invokes the seven colours of the rainbow, the story behind which is seriously intriguing and a real insight into the Inca mindset. The Incas held Pachamama – Mother Earth – to be as sacred as a God, leading to a set of behaviours, rituals and beliefs designed to appease and revere Pachamama. Within this doctrine, rain was believed to be the sperm by which Mother Earth would be impregnated, the rainbow in turn was confirmation that impregnation had been successful. With Pachamama now pregnant as confirmed by the rainbow, the resulting child would be the growth of a successful harvest. The Inca flag (and, for that matter, the flag of the Cusco province) sports the colours of the rainbow, such is the enduring importance of this metaphorical sexual liaison.

The Incas also believed strongly in the afterlife and that people existed in three worlds: one in the sky, one on Earth and one below ground in the underworld. A life obeying the principles of Inca faith would lead to an afterlife in the warmth of the sun; failure to do so would lead to an afterlife in the dank, cold soil below ground. In reverence to Pachamama, rocks in the shape of beasts became temples, soaring mountains became places of sanctuary, their Gods lay within the land. Pachamama needed to be revered, respected, obeyed and cherished. Three creatures were sacred, and revered in temples: the condor (representing love), the puma (power) and the serpent (knowledge), three pinnacles of Inca philosophy.

Of course, respective Gods of the Sun, the Moon and the Rain, to name but three, held a place in Inca religion, as did, intriguingly (remember Nasca?) the dark shapes between the streaks of the Milky Way, and the dark shapes within constellations. One can only wonder at the significance of dark shapes rather than bright stars. What did they know? Each Inca temple houses at least one construction which aligns with the positions of the sun and the planets at the winter solstice: how often we find that in depth knowledge of astronomy is a key point in the customs and rituals of ancient races.

As if the temples and terraces of Machu Picchu, Ollantaytambo and Moray aren’t enough, we then climb the mountains above the village of Maras to grasp our first view of – no exaggeration – one of the most incredible ancient manmade creations we’ve ever seen. These are the scarcely believable salt mines of the Andes, 3,200 metres above sea level: salt mines at this altitude is remarkable in its own right.

But these salt mines have a long, long history, having been in operation for over two thousand years even before the Incas arrived and took control. Approaching the salt mines valley from the top of the adjoining mountain leaves us completely spellbound. Below us are nearly five thousand separate pools, each one supporting a slowly evaporating pond of spring water, turning pinky white as the salt crystals are left to gleam in the sun.

Closer inspection reveals just what an incredibly ingenious process this is. The heavily salty water emanates from a spring just above the valley and enters this ancient complex via a modest flow, but what follows is nothing short of brilliant. Narrow channels take the waters to different sections of the hillside, after which a network of multiple sluices allows just the right quantity of water into each pool to enable evaporation. But – and here’s the bit which really impresses – the sluice system is merely loose rocks placed in shallow walls around each pool and each channel. Remove just one rock and the adjoining pool will be filled.

Imagine balancing that process, inspecting the 5,000 pools to ensure that no pool has too much, or too little, water, and no evaporation process is interrupted by flooding at any time. It’s an amazing place. This basic but brilliant process is mostly unchanged since salt mining began here something like 3,000 years ago. It’s hard to tear ourselves away from this ancient mining system which produces around 85,000 tonnes of salt per year, such is the level of ancient ingenuity. Amazing sight.

The Sacred Valley tells a million stories – with Rene we visited other remarkable places, simply too many to recount all of them here. These powerful mountains have seen it all, from the ingenuity of different races to the widespread slaughter of the Incas as the Spanish imposed the Catholic faith and plundered their sacred lands. As we listen to the passionate words of Rene, a Quechua and thus a direct descendant of the Incas, it’s impossible not to feel the power of the World beneath our feet. There’s just so much knowledge that humanity seems to have lost.

Back in Ollantaytambo village, darkness falls around the small central plaza and, as on our previous nights here, the villagers gather outside the church to watch tonight’s display of traditional dancing. There’s a handful of other travellers like us looking on, but we are really intruders into the villagers’ daily life when evening falls, this is their nightly joy. During the day, hundreds of minibuses call in, disgorge those doing the Sacred Valley in a hurried tour from Cusco and wait while their clients visit the temple, but when darkness descends and the chill winds blow through the square, Ollantaytambo relaxes and once again becomes a quiet mountain village. To the Quechua, onlookers like us are from a different, faithless world.

We can scarcely believe what we have seen so far in the Sacred Valley. Machu Picchu, sacred Inca temples, remnants of towns long predating the Incas, those incredible salt mines and, the most spellbinding of all, some of the most spectacular scenery we have ever had the joy of seeing.

And yet, as it turns out, the Sacred Valley is not finished with us just yet….