On my last post about the Sacred Valley – I left off saying that we were on the way to Ollantaytambo.  We loved the ruins in this city – they were expansive and we spent several hours exploring the main ruins before crossing over to the other side (the free side) to check out the ruins from the other side of the valley.  Very very cool.  We did not get a guide (which I think I would recommend in the future) so we don’t know a whole lot about the history of Ollantaytambo, which is why I pulled some info from Wikipedia and am including it below.

Enjoy the photos!

Supposedly, because of the placement and the amount of air able to pass through these buildings, they served as a form of “refrigeration.”
(That’s me up there on the right).

We had no idea what these were for.  But we had fun playing in them!

Above, this wall was once a part of the “Temple of the Sun.”  This is at a very accessible area of the ruins, however, Kenzo and I climbed all the way to the top of the mountain (where there were NO other tourists) thinking that the temple of the sun was supposedly up there.  Once we got up there, after getting stuck badly by some cacti, we returned to the main ruins (2 hours later) to find the temple right in the middle of them.

Notice how well fit the stones are above – they did not use mortar or anything.

After finishing the ruins, we ate lunch and then headed to the other side of the valley to climb up again.

These photos are from our cut through the city.  This is kind of cool, notice the water “plumbing” that the Inkas incorporated on the street below:

The view of the main ruins from the other side (Kenzo and I climbed up to that lower peak before realizing we were wrong about the Temple of the Sun.”

Beautiful day!!  Great time.

Also, be sure to check out our gallery of Ollantaytambo that has a lot more scenic photos.

From Wikipedia:

During the Spanish conquest of Peru Ollantaytambo served as a temporary capital for Manco Inca, leader of the native resistance against the conquistadors. He fortified the town and its approaches in the direction of the former Inca capital of Cusco, which had fallen under Spanish domination.  In 1536, on the plain of Mascabamba, near Ollantaytambo, Manco Inca defeated a Spanish expedition blocking their advance from a set of high terraces and flooding the plain.  Despite his victory,however, Manco Inca did not consider his position tenable so the following year he withdrew to the heavily forested site of Vilcabamba.

In 1540, the native population of Ollantaytambo was assigned in encomienda to Hernando Pizarro.