A fortress fit for a puma
Overlooking the city of Cusco from an altitude of 3,701 meters (12,142 feet), Sacsayhuamán exemplifies Inca engineering. Construction began around the 15th century under the rule of Inca Pachacuti, the same ruler who commissioned Machu Picchu. The complex is famous for its three massive, tiered walls running in a zigzag pattern for nearly 400 meters. This design is not arbitrary; the layout of ancient Cusco was conceived in the shape of a puma, a sacred animal, and Sacsayhuamán forms its head, with the zigzag walls representing the animal's teeth.
The walls are built from enormous blocks of limestone and andesite. The largest of these stones are estimated to weigh between 125 and 200 tons. These megaliths were quarried and transported from sites up to 20 kilometers away. Chronicles from the Spanish conquest suggest a workforce of 20,000 men was required for the task, which spanned several decades and the reigns of three Inca rulers. Once a vast complex of temples and towers, only about 40% of the original structure remains today. After the Spanish conquest in the 1530s, they dismantled much of the site, using its smaller stones to build their colonial houses and churches in Cusco. The largest foundation stones were simply too massive to move.