Epic Travel → Central and South America → Peru → Tipon

♦ Intrepid Top Pick!

Location: Sacred Valley, Southeast of Cusco

Time Required: 2-5 hours

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, Pikillacta, Cruzmoqo

Tipon is a very interesting site, and one of the less visited major archaeological sites in Peru – it consists of huge terraces fed by an extensive canal system that takes advantage of a natural spring (it’s actually on the list of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks), and while this would lead one to believe that the purpose of the site was as some kind of agricultural center, the true purpose isn’t known. Some archaeologists believe it was a palace built for Yawar Waqaq, and it’s easy to imagine the site being a grand palace with water flowing at full force creating beautiful cascades and waterfalls everywhere amongst terraces in full bloom. You’ll find the remains of some structures/buildings at the Tipon site, but if you venture further out you can find much more than the canals and terraces; the archaeological park has other sections which are nearby and notable, including the Intiwatana, Sinkunacancha, and Qolcas, which are all in close proximity to the terraces. If you have a bit more time, you can hike up to Pukara, which is an extensive set of ruins that very few people visit. Try looking at Tipon on Google Maps with the satellite imagery on and you’ll be able to see the extent of the different sites – and get a scope for how large the site originally was – the park is huge and you can see that the whole area was covered in terraces originally and only a tiny fraction have been recovered; there are also loads of structures and walls on the site, the majority of which have not been excavated. If you have several hours, and you want something more of an adventure, check out our Cruzmoqo post.

Epic Travel → Central and South America → Peru → Tipon