On my last day in Cuenca, and once everyone had left, I decided to go visit the largest Incan ruins in Ecuador. Michael had the day off and so he decided to join me. It is a 2.5 hour trip north of Cuenca (which I had passed on the way from Alausi mind you!)
Ingapirca, translated from Kechwa, means Inca wall. The Incans came across the Canari tribe here and after problems conquering them they decided to live together, Interestingly, the Canari people were a matriarchal society.
There are distinct sections of the complex that can be split into the tribes. Incans built with their precise stone cutting techniques , using volcanic rocks, while the Canari used river stones. The complex is on the Incan trail that existed across the empire -from Colombia to current northern Chile and Argentina.
There are storage sheds here, a Moon Temple as well as Sun Temple . There is also a complex water reticulation system.
