Saqsaywaman: The Last Days of the Incas’ Peru Tour #11

Cusco (3-4 Days)

Visiting the Inca Ruins of Saqsaywaman

When the Inca emperor Manco Inca rose up against Francisco Pizarro and his men in 1536, the emperor at first escaped from the city, then returned with several hundred thousand Inca warriors who trapped the 190 Spaniards within two small buildings on Cusco’s main square. Francisco Pizarro was in Lima at the time leaving three of his brothers—Hernando, Juan, and Gonzalo—in charge of the city. Thoroughly unnerved by the massive size and scale of the rebellion, the three brothers decided that the Spaniards’ only chance was to break out of the city and to somehow capture the massive Inca ceremonial center of Saqsaywaman, now being used as a fortress, that loomed above. Saqsaywaman, it turned out, was the key to capturing the Inca’s capital.

Quoting from Chapter 9 of The Last Days of the Incas:

“Conferring with Manco’s cousin Pasac, who had sided with the Spaniards, Juan and Hernando [Pizarro] decided that the only way to attempt storming the fortress of Saqsaywaman was to first somehow break through the legions of warriors to the north of the city, gaining the road that led to Jauja, and then, if successful, to wheel about and ride east around the hills until they reached the grassy plain fronting the fortress. Once there, the Spaniards would have to somehow launch a frontal assault against the Incas’ colossal walls. To many of those who listened to the plan, the mission seemed suicidal. Still, unless they were somehow able to seize the initiative, all realized that they were doomed to remain in the city and to gradually be worn down by attrition. With the grace of God, thought some, the desperate plan just might work…

Early in the morning on May 13, Juan Pizarro and about fifty horsemen “emerged from the church [of Suntur Huasi] and mounted their horses as if they were going to fight and started to look from side to side. While they were looking about in this way, they suddenly put spurs to their horses and at full gallop, [and] despite the enemy, broke through the opening that had been sealed like a wall and charged off up the hillside at breakneck speed.”

Juan’s cousin, Pedro, remembered how he and the rest of the cavalry had to first break through the native contingents hurling stones at them and then how they had to zigzag up the steep hillside, stopping frequently while their native auxiliaries cleared the way.

“We went up through Carmenga, a very narrow road, bordered on one side by a hillside and on the other by a ravine, deep in some places, and from this ravine they inflicted much damage on us with stones and arrows, and they had [also] destroyed the road in some places and had made many holes in it. We went this way and with great effort and difficulty, because we kept stopping and waiting while the few friendly Indians we had with us–fewer than a hundred–filled up the holes and repaired the roads.

Assuming that the Spaniards were trying to flee the city, the Inca commanders sent runners racing to the distant Apurimac River, ordering that the great hanging bridge there be destroyed, thus cutting off that avenue of escape. The Spanish cavalry, however, once having broken through to the northwest, suddenly wheeled around to the east and then began riding rapidly through the country in the direction of Saqsaywaman. After much effort and having to breach earthen barricades that Manco’s warriors had constructed, Juan and his cavalry finally succeeded in reaching the grassy plain that stretched before the fortresses’ massive northern walls.

Pausing to regroup, the Spaniards now contemplated their next step. Before them rose three, thousand-foot-long, staggered walls of gray, gargantuan-sized stones, the largest of which weighed more than three-hundred-and-sixty tons and rose more than twenty-eight feet in height. The Incas had filled in earth behind each stone wall so that a flat terrace was formed at its top. Native defenders could thus stand upon both the terraces and the walls and from there could direct a withering volley of stones, darts, and arrows down upon the exposed attackers below. If the attackers somehow seized one of the walls, the defenders could retreat upwards to the next wall and terrace, and then to the next, and so on. From the bottom of the first wall to the top of the third stretched a vertical distance of at least sixty feet. On the broad summit above the walls stood a labyrinth of buildings and from among their midst rose three stone towers. The central tower of Saqsaywaman stood the tallest and was four to five stories in height, was cone shaped, and measured some seventy-five feet in diameter; those flanking it on either side were nearly the same height and were rectangular. Beneath Saqsaywaman’s towers ran a warren of secret tunnels that extended out at least as far as the defensive walls and perhaps even beyond.

Built during the previous century, Saqsaywaman—“the (fortress of the) satisfied falcon”–was so vast that the entire population of Cuzco, if necessary, could find refuge within its perimeter. With at least thirty thousand native warriors now defending it and with the high priest, Villac Umu, personally directing their efforts, the fifty Spanish cavalrymen and their perhaps one hundred native allies were now faced with a seemingly insurmountable task: they somehow had to figure out a way to breach Saqsaywaman’s massive walls and then to seize the fortress from its defenders

Juan’s brother, Gonzalo, and the Spanish captain, Hernán Ponce de León, now led several frontal attacks. Charging across the grassy plain towards the fortress, the Spaniards immediately ran into a withering barrage of darts, arrows, and sling stones, propelled from above by shouting native warriors. The closer the Spanish horsemen approached the Saqsaywaman’s walls, the thicker the hail of missiles became. During their final charge, Manco’s warriors managed to kill Juan Pizarro’s page, who was felled by a single sling stone, presumably to the face, and also two of the Spaniards’ African slaves, who more than likely owned no armor. Many other Spaniards and their horses were wounded in the desperate assault.

Retreating to a rocky knoll that stood on the opposite side of the grassy plain, the Spaniards dismounted and deliberated about what to do. Below them in the city they could hear the sounds of iron-shod horse hooves pounding the streets and also the sounds of shouting and of fighting. Their comrades were clearly engaged with attacking natives in the streets below. High above the city facing Saqsaywaman and gathered together on a rocky knoll, the Spaniards felt isolated and exposed. As the sun began to set, Juan Pizarro decided to try a final attack; this time, however, he instructed his men to concentrate their forces on the main gate that created a break in the first wall. The gate was barricaded and had both a defensive pit dug before it and two flanking walls on either side.

Not able to wear a helmet due to the head wound he had suffered the day before, and with the last rays of the sun illuminating the fortress walls’ and towers, Juan and his fellow cavalrymen, shouting traditional cries of “Santiago!,” began galloping together across the grassy plain and towards Saqsaywaman as stone missiles began to whiz down on top of them, bouncing back up from the ground like giant balls of hail. Wheeling to a stop before the main gate and protecting themselves with their shields, the Spaniards leapt from their horses, then threw themselves against the wicker barrier that sealed the gateway. Somehow breaking through, the Spaniards now began to force their way up the stone stairway that led up to the first terrace.

As the native defenders rushed forwards to close off the breach, an increasingly heavy volley of rocks and missiles rained down upon the Spaniards from above, loudly clanging off of their armor. The warriors’ fierce counterattack soon forced the Spaniards to retreat back down the stairway and out onto the plain. Shouting at his men to renew their efforts, Juan once again surged forward, however, swinging his sword fiercely and forcing his way ahead, literally hurling himself against a sea tide of native bodies. Juan’s cousin, Pedro, remembered what happened next:

“From a terrace that is on one side of the courtyard they showered us with so many stones and arrows that we could not protect ourselves, and for this reason Juan Pizarro shoved some of the infantrymen towards the terrace…which was low, so that some Spaniards might get up on it and drive the Indians from there. And while he was fighting with these Indians in order to drive them away…Juan…neglected to cover his head with his shield, and with the many stones that they were throwing one of them hit him on the head and cracked his skull….”

Bleeding from what was obviously a serious head injury, Juan nevertheless continued fighting until the Spaniards and their native allies had gained a foothold on top of Saqsaywaman’s first terrace wall. With darkness descending, however, and still pummeled from the two sets of walls above them with a constant avalanche of stones, the Spaniards nevertheless were gradually forced once again to retreat back down and across the plain, some remounting their horses while others stumbled backwards, holding their shields up for protection. Manco’s warriors, meanwhile, advanced after them, shouting insults and lifting their tunics to bare their legs while others continued to relentlessly whirl and launch a seemingly inexhaustible supply of stones.

Reaching the relative safety of the knoll, Juan Pizarro now collapsed. Native auxiliaries soon carried the Spanish leader down the steep hillside and back into the city. Mortally wounded, Juan would drift in and out of consciousness for the next few days, while the battle continued to swirl around him. Three days after his assault on Saqsaywaman, the twenty-three-year-old Pizarro was lucid long enough to dictate his will, which a notary/conquistador duly recorded and then had the dying man scratch his mark upon:

“I, Juan Pizarro, citizen of this great city of Cuzco, in the Kingdom of New Castile, son of [Captain] Gonzalo Pizarro [Sr.] and Maria Alonso, [both] deceased (may God rest their souls), being of sick body but of sound mind…because I am indisposed and not knowing what our Lord God has in mind for me, I want to make and organize this last will and testament…. Firstly, I commend my soul to God, who created and redeemed it with his precious blood and body…[and] I order that if God decides to take me from this present life because of the sickness I now have, that my body be buried in the main church [of Suntur Huasi] in this city until such a time as my brothers Hernando Pizarro and Gonzalo Pizarro carry my bones [back] to Spain, to the city of Trujillo, and have them buried there where they see fit…. I order that on the day of my death a Requiem Mass be sung, and that a Mass be sung on each of the following nine days….

I [also] order that because I have received [sexual] services from an Indian woman who has given birth to a girl whom I do not recognize as my daughter, [that nevertheless]…because of the services of her mother I order that if this girl becomes of marriageable age and weds with the blessing of my brother, Hernando Pizarro, that she will be given 2,000 ducats for her marriage. [However] if she dies before marrying without heirs…it is my desire that those 2,000 ducats be returned to my heirs…so that her mother will not inherit them…. I [also] order that…my universal heir [will be]…and all of my worldly goods [will go to] my brother, Gonzalo Pizarro…. [This will was] made and approved before the notary public and witnesses…in the said capital of Cuzco on the 16th day of the month of May, in the year one thousand five hundred and thirty six of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.”

Two weeks after his injury, Juan Pizarro died, recognizing neither the native woman from whom he had “received services” nor his own mixed-race daughter, who by his own choice he insisted remain illegitimate. Juan did, however, pass on his fortune of two hundred thousand gold ducats to his already fabulously wealthy brother, twenty-one-year-old Gonzalo. Remarkably, Juan made no mention in his will of the battle that continued to rage around him in the streets, nor of the possibility that the desperate men who witnessed his final testament might at any moment be completely wiped out. Despite his final request, however, Juan’s remains would never be returned to Spain. Juan was the first of the five Pizarro brothers to die as a result of the conquest of Tawantinsuyu and his bones would remain forevermore buried in Peru [and were interred on the grounds of the Qoricancha, the Incas’ Temple of the Sun (and later Santo Domingo Church). Their whereabouts now are unknown].”

After fierce fighting, the Spaniards eventually did subdue the Incas at Saqsaywaman, which for the Incas became a sort of Waterloo—a decisive turning point in the war.

The massive walls of Saqsaywaman, however, still remain–the same ones that, more than 500 years ago, a  mere one hundred Spaniards somehow overcame.

Visiting Saqsaywaman’s Ruins:

From San Cristóbal Church (which has great views over Cusco, both day and night), head up the main road towards Saqsaywaman, which lies about a mile further. Once you arrive before Saqsaywaman’s massive, zig-zag Inca walls, you can look across to the Rodadero; this was the exposed location the Spaniards attacked the fortress from and where they gathered after their first unsuccessful attacks. The Rodadero affords an excellent view of Saqsaywaman’s walls, which stretch for more than one thousand feet and that rest on cut stones, some of which weigh up to 130 tons.

What is left of Saqsaywaman, after centuries during which the Spaniards used it as a quarry of finished stones, consists of three staggered sets of walls. Above the highest level can still be seen the foundations of three towers–the last redoubts of Inca warriors resisting the Spaniards and from one of which an Inca warrior leapt to his death. It was on this level, too, that the Incas had built at Sacsaywaman numerous storage buildings, filled at the time of the Spaniards’ arrival with military supplies. According to the first Spaniard to have left his impression about the fortress in 1534 (Pedro Sancho de la Hoz), nothing like Saqsaywaman had ever before been seen: “Neither the bridge of Segovia nor any of the buildings that the Romans or Hercules built are so worthy of being seen as this.”

In reality, although the Spaniards referred to Saqsaywaman as a “fortress,” the complex was probably a combination of fortress, temple and military warehouses, dedicated to the Sun God, or Inti. On the grassy plaza before Saqsaywaman’s walls, thousands of natives could have gathered for ceremonies, with conch shell trumpets blown from the walls and towers above.