Epic Travel → Central and South America → Peru → Pikillacta

Location: Southeast of Cusco, between Oropesa and Andahuaylillas

Time Required: 1 hour

Red Tape/Notes: You’ll need either the Cusco General Tourist ticket ($130 for foreigners as of 2017) or a Cusco Circuit 2 ticket ($70 for foreigners as of 2017) to visit the site. Which ticket you want will depend on what else you’re seeing (and when you’re seeing it). Visit this website for more information on the various ticket types and to purchase tickets.

What’s Nearby?: Mountain Biking, Cusco, Saqsaywaman, Oropesa Bread Making, Tipon, Cruzmoqo

Pikillacta is a large pre-Inca cultural site of the Wari people; it was occupied from around 550 to 1100 CE, and used mainly for ceremonial purposes. There were a large number of canals, reservoirs, and aqueducts indicating that the sight was important for farming, and there’s evidence of a hydraulic network that was used for artificial irrigation during the dry season. The site was likely used for large feasts, and was largely incomplete when it was abandoned for unknown reasons (the site is divided into four sections, and only section 2 was complete) – it appears to have been sealed up as if the residents intended to come back, and then a large fire destroyed the site. What’s left now is mainly just a large grillwork of walls and canals, and some of the original plastered and painted walls are visible in one section of the site.

Epic Travel → Central and South America → Peru → Pikillacta