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Intihuatana Review
Read our Cusco and Machu Picchu sights reviews. Or post your own.
Intihuatana
- Category: Archaeological Sites
- Location: Machu Picchu
Fodor's Review:
Onward is a hillock that leads to the famous Intihuatana, the so-called "Hitching Post of the Sun." Every important Inca center had one of these vertical stone columns (called gnomons), but their function remains a mystery. They likely did double duty as altars and time-measurement devices to divine the growing seasons. The Spanish destroyed most of the hitching posts they encountered throughout the empire, deeming them to be objects of pagan worship. Machu Picchu's is one of the few to survive -- partially survive at least. Shamefully, its top was accidentally knocked off in 2001 during the filming of a Cusqueña beer commercial on the site.
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