Location
| The
temple of the Sun or Koricancha is located in the southern
part of the city of Cusco, called the Hurin Qosqo. It
is surrounded by the Square of Santo Domingo, Ahuacpinta
street, Av. Sol, and the Pumacchupan (now Garcilaso
Street). Seen from the South, it looks like a pyramid,
because the temple was built on a natural hill that
was in its time the main Huaca (temple). Below the temple
the rivers Saphy and Tullumayo flow into the ditch at
the edge of the temple. |
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The Chroniclers
say that the first temple of the Inca Empire was located
on a hill called Huanacauri, in the Southern part of the
city. Later, when the valley of Cusco was occupied, the
incas built another temple called the Inticancha (Enclosure
of the Sun), but the first temple was very modest.
Its Construction
Archeological explorations of the Koricancha were carried
out by Rowe in 1941, Barreda in 1972, Valencia and Gibaja
in 1975 and between 1977-1979. From these explorations,
it was concluded that there had been another occupation
before the incas built the temple, in a period called Inca
Provincial or Kilke. The temple was built during the reign
of the Inca Wiracocha around the year 1200 A.D., and later
with the Inca Pachacutec the temple was embellished or decorated.
Around the temple there were many buildings like the Palace
of Huayna Ccapac, the palace of Kusicancha, the Inn of Kunturpata
and the Inticancha Plaza.
Many chroniclers, historians, travelers and critics have
written about this monument, and it's believed that from
this temple the incas took most of the treasure to pay the
release of the Inca Atahuallpa, captured by the spaniards.
This treasure was made up of more than 700 plates of gold
that weighed 10 to 12 pounds, and the smaller ones weighed
4 to 5 pounds. Also historians claim that idols were taken
as well as utensils and other objects, in total they filled
up one room with gold and two rooms with silver objects.
Architecture
and Decoration
The
architecture of the temple was excellent and flawless.
It consisted of high walls that circled the temple.
Inside, there were rectangular rooms with beautifully
polished floors.
Surrounding the courtyard there were walls decorated
with precious metals.
The stones used by the incas to built the temple were
plutonic diorite rocks and calcareous rocks, they were
brought from the quarries located 20 to 30 Km away from
the temple, called Waqoto and Rumiqolca. |
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The walls were
built using the biggest stones for the foundations, and
smaller ones at the top. The incas used a thin layer of
clay. These walls reached to the lintel of the niches and
windows, and over the rocks the incas put mud bricks. At
the top of the walls, some wood was placed to hold a straw
roof.
Documents about temple say that on the wall there was a
frame of gold, as decorative element, two palms wide and
four fingers high. The shape of the walls are trapezoidal
and the vertical inclination is typical of the inca's architecture.
We can observe how the incas were masters of stone work.
The stones were perfectly joined not even a needle could
penetrate the space in between. The floors were made also
of stone and in some rooms had the floor covered with compacted
clay and earth. In some other rooms, dust was used to cover
the floors. For the supreme beings, among them the God Wiracocha,
the Sun, the Moon and Stars and the mother Pachamama, everyone
of them had a room in Koricancha's temple.
Priests and acllas used to live inside the temple. The acllas
were selected women in order to honor or serve the Sun,
that's why they were called Women of the Sun. These people
kept a permanent fire, day and night.
According
to the chroniclers the Koricancha temple had four doors
that led to the main streets, others say that it had
only one door towards the North. There were five independent
rooms around the courtyard, and other historians say
that there were only four. The walls and doors of these
rooms were covered with golden and silver plates. Once
inside people entered a small courtyard where there
was an image of the Sun, made of gold.
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In this chapel,
under the figure of the sun, were the embalmed corpses of
the past rulers and incas, seated on golden chairs. Only
Huayna Ccapac was in front of the figure of the Sun, facing
East .The morning sun filled the room with its shiny lights.
Inside, there was a drawing with images that represented
the inca's vision of the cosmos, told by the chronicler
Santa Cruz Pachacuti. In these drawings we can see the god
Wiracocha, the Sun, the Moon, Venus, the Rainbow, the Lightning,
a man and a woman, a tree and stars.
This room was called the Solar Drum, now it's known as the
Main Altar of the Christian Church that was built over the
Inca structure. In front of this room, there was a fruit
garden, or a garden of gold, with golden corns, trees, animals,
fruit, butterflies, birds, and tools for the land. It is
said that Pachacutec cultivated the land. The image of the
Sun was given to the spaniard Mancio Sierra de Leguizamo,
who gambled with the image and lost it.
Other chroniclers say that the image was smaller. There
were also other statues of the Sun made of thick blankets
that carried the llauto, and they say they were made like
that , because once people saw three suns in the sky. One
of the figures represented the real Sun, another represented
the day and the last one represented the virtue to raise.
These figures were known as the Apu Inti or Sun King, the
Churi Inti or the Son of the Sun, and the other was the
Inti Huauqui or Brother of the Sun. There was also a statue
of a naked boy, wearing a golden lace. According to some
chroniclers this figure represented the Inca Wiracocha and
the others say it was the sun itself. Another room was dedicated
to the Moon, sister of the Sun, covered with silver, with
the shape and face of a woman. Next to her, there were some
mummies of coyas or wives of the Incas. The wife of Huayna
Ccapac was in front of the disc. Other rooms located next
to those of the Sun and the moon offered to the stars the
Lightning and the Rainbow. All of these rooms were covered
with gold and on these plates there was a drawing of the
Rainbow and a drawing of Venus.
There were small idols made of gold and silver among the
sacrifices and gifts (found in the excavations made by Gibaja
in 1975), there was also wool, cotton, coca leaves, llamas,
huanacos, chaquiras (small beads) golden sheets, small clothes
(the size of the idols) food, pins, and chicha. It's claimed
that people sacrificed babies of both genders during the
ceremony of coronation of the Inca, when he died, after
his victories, or when a big construction was finished.
Starting from the Temple of Koricancha emerged to the four
cardinal points, about 41 imaginary lines, in each one,
there were located the sacred places or huacas, made a total
of 328. The temple had five water springs, some of them
with golden faucets, others made of stone. Chronicler Garcilaso
saw only one.
Many Streets converged in front of the temple joining downtown
area. The modern streets now are Av. Sol, St. Romeritos,
St. Loreto (Intiquillo), St. San Agustin All of them converged
at the small plaza called Intipampa, where the ceremonies
took place with dances and sacrifices in honor of Sun God.
It's said that only the nobility could enter and no women
were allowed. The chronicler Garcilaso de la Vega said that
in order to enter into the temple, people had to have fasted
for a whole year.
The area of the Koricancha was given to Pedro Pizarro when
the spaniards divided the city among the conquerors. Pizarro
was a religious man and gave the property to Padre Olias,
for the construction of a church and a convent for the Dominic
order.
In the XVI century, the Christian temple was built over
the Inca structure. The spaniards destroyed some of these
sacred temples, taking away treasures of the place, melting
part of the precious metal objects found there in order
to be distributed among the conquerors. One fifth of the
wealth was sent to the King of Spain. At the end of the
century the traveler Squir visited the temple and he was
amazed with its beauty and quality.
| At
the end of the present century, historian Luis E. Valcarcel
declared this monument a master piece of the Inca architecture.
Alexander Von Humbolt said that the inca architecture
is solid, symmetric and simple. In 1950, during the
earthquake, some of the church was destroyed especially
around the Main Altar, and the central Arch. Afterwards
during the reconstruction workers found several waterways
in the central courtyard and later in 1975 an 1979 other
waterways were found near the andenes. This building
shows a mixture of spanish and inca culture, but it
maintains its grandeur. |
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Arminda Gibaja Oviedo
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