Peru Guide
Cusco
Puca Pucara
Opening time: Daily 7am–5.30pm
Price: Entry by Cusco Tourist Ticket ($47 for ten days, students $25: valid for sixteen Cusco attractions)
The relatively small ruin of PUCA PUCARA, meaning "Red Fort", is around 11km from Cusco, impressively situated overlooking the Cusco Valley, right beside the main Cusco– Pisac road, and well worth the trip. Between one and two hours' cross-country walk, uphill from Sacsayhuaman and Qenko (longer if you keep to the sinuous main road), this area is dotted with cut rocks. The zone was well populated in Inca days, and many of those people may have been worked to obtain stones for building.
Although in many ways reminiscent of a small European castle, with a commanding esplanade topping its semicircle of protective wall, Puca Pucara is more likely to have been a hunting lodge for the emperor than simply a defensive position. Thought to have been built by the Emperor Pachacutec, it commands views towards glaciers to the south of the Cusco Valley. Easily defended on three sides, it could have contained only a relatively small garrison and may have been a guard post between Cusco and the Sacred Valley, which lies to the northeast; it could also have had a sacred function, as it has excellent views towards the apu of Ausangate and is ideally placed to keep tabs on the flow of people and produce from the Sacred Valley to Cusco. In sum, Puca Pucara is a good example of how the Incas combined recreation and spirituality along with social control and military defence.