Choquequirao, Sierra de Vilcabamba, Abancay, Peru

Choquequirao

Choquequirao was one of the last fortresses of the Incas. The archeological reconstruction began in 2003, and construction of a cable car has just been approved. The Incas were well-known for choosing their locations in accordance with astrology and harmony with the natural environment. Choquequirao, protected as it is by two rivers and surrounded by sacred mountains, is not only strategically located, but is also an architectural representation of Incan cosmology. The Incas believed that there were three levels of reality. In Choquequirao, the main level represents the world of experience in which we live. There are lower levels, mostly terraces and places of purificaiton, which represented the lower world, source of 'heavy' emotions like fear and guilt. Finally, there are two areas higher on the mountain that represent the world of spirits and other dimensions. Only the shamans went to this level of the fortress. Choquequirao was built in harmony with the sacred landscape and maintains traces of this harmony until today.

10/2016

Kaatje Jones

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