Message #257904

[Cloud Warrior]

It is easy to envision a great procession of corn beer, chicha drinking pilgrims singing and chanting, conch shells blowing, melodic flutes forlornly playing, drums reverberating from the canyon walls as the outer gate is approached. Pots and cups are ritually broken and offerings, borne in for the mountain spirits, apus, are piled about as the ceremony starts, carefully choreographed by richly dressed attendant priests.

Evidence that coca was widely grown, coca store houses, llama pens and a unique llama train mural, support Choquequirao as an important coca growing and distribution center. Intensive cultivation, ongoing construction and maintenance would have required a large resident population. Remains of a large settlement of simple, round, wood dwellings contained by low stone walls is situated over an area of several square miles, above an outlying temple water shrine, Pinchaunuyoc. These would have housed the needed workers well away from privileged resident Inca administrators, attendants, and main group temples.

Choquequirao layoutVisiting Choquequirao