Peru Guide
Cusco
Qenko
Opening time: Daily 7am–5.30pm
Price: Entry by Cusco Tourist Ticket ($47 for ten days, students $25: valid for sixteen Cusco attractions)
The large limestone outcrop of QENKO was another important Inca huaca. This great stone, carved with a complex pattern of steps, seats, geometric reliefs and puma designs, illustrates the critical role of the Rock Cult in the realm of Inca cosmological beliefs. The name of this huaca derives from the Quechua word quenqo, meaning "labyrinth" or "zigzag", and refers to the patterns laboriously carved into the upper, western edge of the stone. At an annual festival priests would pour sacrificial llama blood into a bowl at the serpent-like top of the main zigzag channel; if it flowed out through the left-hand bifurcation, this was a bad omen for the fertility of the year to come. If, on the other hand, it continued the full length of the channel and poured onto the rocks below, this was a good omen.
The stone may also be associated with solstice and equinox ceremonies, fertility rites and even marriage rituals. Right on top of the stone two prominent round nodules are carved onto a plinth. These appear to be mini versions of intihuatanas ("hitching posts" of the sun), found at many Inca sacred sites – local guides claim that on the summer solstice, at around 8am, the nodules' shadow looks like a puma's face and a condor with wings outstretched at the same time. Along with the serpent-like divinatory channels, this would complete the three main layers of the Inca cosmos: sky (condor), earth (puma) and the underworld (snake). Beneath Qenko are several tunnels and caves, replete with impressive carved niches and steps, which may have been places for spiritual contemplation and communication with the forces of life and earth.
At the top end of the huaca, behind the channelled section, the Incas constructed an impressive, if relatively small, semicircular amphitheatre with nineteen vaulted niches (probably seats for priests or nobles) facing in towards the impressive limestone. At the heart of the amphitheatre rises a natural standing stone, which looks like a frog (representative of the life-giving and cleansing power of rain) from some angles and like a puma from others, both creatures of great importance to pre-Conquest Peru.