The grid
Like a chessboard.
AgainErick — CC BY-SA 3.0 · KimonBerlin — CC BY-SA 2.0 · KimonBerlin — CC BY-SA 2.0 · KimonBerlin — CC BY-SA 2.0
A large city built by the Wari culture centuries before the Incas, occupied from about AD 550 to 1100, some 3,200 metres up in a valley south-east of Cusco. It is among the clearest evidence that the Wari Empire, whose capital lay near Ayacucho, reached as far as the Cusco region. Its strangest feature is its strict geometric plan: hundreds of rectangular buildings and courtyards laid out in a regular grid like a chessboard, divided by long, high walls of rough stone and mud, some several metres tall. From a high lookout you see the whole grid spread across the hills. Its architecture is quite unlike smooth, precise Inca stonework, showing how building developed in the region. Researchers think the city was an administrative and ceremonial centre, abandoned before it was finished. The site is large and little visited, and is usually paired with the nearby Inca gardens of Tipón in half a day. The sun is strong, so bring a hat and water.
Like a chessboard.
Stone and mud.
Half a day.
Lucre basin, Quispicanchi province, about 30 km south-east of Cusco
It is older, built by the Wari centuries before the Incas, with walls of rough stone and mud and a grid plan, while Inca building is known for smooth, precise stone.