outside there are the inevitable salespersons
the passage to mother earth is narrow
then we can go down
we have to wait, it's busy inside
the altar
Qenqo is a temple dedicated to Mother Earth. It is inside a rock formation on top of the Socorro hill just north of Cusco.
The
name means Labyrinth or zigzag in Quechuan language.
Its main feature is an underground altar made of one piece of stone. It
was probably used for sacrifices.
Niches, carved in the stone walls could have been used to display statues or mummies of important
Incas. But maybe they used it as a cold place to store their chicha beer.
There are also canals, clearly made to carry
liquids. Maybe blood or beer, we just do not know.
We paid a short visit to this mysterious site one late evening in June
2008.
outside the temple
one of the niches
