Ingapirca Archaeological Complex
Ecuador's largest Inca site, with the elliptical Temple of the Sun raised on natural rock.
Ingapirca lies at more than 3,000 metres in the province of Cañar, about 80 kilometres north of Cuenca, and is the largest surviving Inca site in Ecuador. The Cañari people occupied the ridge long before the Inca arrived in the late fifteenth century, and the complex preserves both traditions: earlier Cañari foundations and burials sit alongside finely dressed Inca ashlar laid without mortar. The site probably served ceremonial, astronomical, administrative and storage roles on the Qhapaq Ñan, the Inca road system.
Its best known structure is the elliptical Temple of the Sun, built on a large natural outcrop and generally described as the only elliptical Inca temple known in South America. Openings in its walls admit light at the solstices. Other remains include the Pilaloma sector with its carved stone basins, terraces, storehouses, water channels and a series of niched chambers. A small site museum displays Cañari and Inca ceramics and metalwork, and llamas and alpacas graze the surrounding grassland.
Highlights
- Elliptical Temple of the Sun raised on a natural rock outcrop
- Cañari foundations beneath later Inca mortarless masonry
- Pilaloma sector with carved basins and burial remains
- On-site archaeological museum of Cañari and Inca finds
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