Ollantaytambo Archeological Site
Terraced stone fortress with cliffside granaries once used to outlast a siege that stone walls alone could not win.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Ollantaytambo starts across the valley from the fortress terraces, at a row of stone granaries clinging to the cliff of Pinkuylluna, built under the emperor Pachacuti with a venting design clever enough to keep maize and potatoes from rotting for years. It sets that harvest against January 1537, when Manco Inca's forces, fed and rested, faced Hernando Pizarro riding in with a small force of Spaniards and thousands of native allies expecting a quick raid. It follows what food, not weapons, let an army do at this one site. Look up at the terraces climbing to the temple, then across at the granaries that outlasted the siege.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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