Sacred Valley of the Incas by junge1

Photography • Landscape • posted on Oct 03, 2014

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No AI - This artwork was created entirely by hand or with traditional digital tools.

Description

The Sacred Valley of the Incas was formed by, and extends along, the Urubamba River, also known as Willkamayu in Quechua, the still spoken lingua franca of the Inca Empire. The valley is located near the Inca capital of Cusco, and includes the small towns of Pisaq (shown), Calca, Yucay, Urubamba, and Ollantaytambo. The valley floor at Pisaq, at the upper end of the valley, is at an elevation of 3050 m (~ 10,000-ft). Ollantaytambo, at the lower end of the valley, is at an elevation of 2,850 m (~9,350-ft). Large scale maize (corn) production started around 1400 AD as Inca urban agriculture. Today mostly corn is grown on the valley floor along the river and on the lower slopes of the adjacent mountains between these two towns. Just upriver from Ollantaytambo, the PERURAIL from Cusco crosses the river and provides the connection with Aguas Calientes, the gateway to Machu Picchu. There is no other connection to Aguas Calientes. Over a distance of about 105 km (~65 mi) from Pisaq to Aguas Calientes the Urubamba River drops about 3,000-ft in elevation. This picture was taken on 25 August 2014, Sig...