Ollantaytambo Archeological Site

Pachacuti's mid-15th century construction project created both temple complex and town. The 1537 Inca victory over Pizarro made Ollantaytambo a site of resistance. Continuous habitation has preserved patterns that other Inca sites lost.

Before Pachacuti, a settlement existed at this strategic location where the Urubamba Valley narrows. Around the mid-15th century, the great Inca emperor conquered this area and razed the existing town. What he built in its place was one of the most ambitious undertakings in Inca history.

Pachacuti incorporated the town and temple complex into his personal estate. The terraces were designed for maximum agricultural production in the Sacred Valley's fertile soil. The Temple of the Sun at the summit would honor Inti with a scale appropriate to imperial devotion. Quarries at Cachicata produced the rose rhyolite blocks that would form the temple walls.

The construction employed thousands of workers and an elaborate transportation system. Blocks weighing up to 50 tons moved from quarry to building site using ramps, slides, and carefully engineered routes. The work was still underway when the Spanish arrived.

In 1537, Manco Inca—leading the Inca resistance from Ollantaytambo—faced Hernando Pizarro's forces. Using the terrain brilliantly, flooding the approaches and defending from the terraces, Manco achieved what few Inca commanders managed: victory against the Spanish. The triumph was temporary—Manco eventually retreated to Vilcabamba—but it marked Ollantaytambo as a site of successful resistance.

Unlike other Inca towns abandoned after conquest, Ollantaytambo's inhabitants never left. The Spanish never rebuilt the town in their colonial style. The Inca patterns simply continued, modified but not replaced, until the present day.