Archaeologists have reportedly uncovered remains of buildings in the Sacsayhuamán fortress overlooking the former Inca capital of Cusco which could be structures described in the Comentarios Reales de los Incas, an important chronicle of the Inca empire written by the first mesitzo writer of colonial Andean South America, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega.
The base of the archaeological structure was found in the Muyucmarka zone, which is the upper part of the Sacsayhuamán’s main temple, Agencia Andina reported.
“The most interesting thing about this archaeological discovery is that part of it, we presume, is what Inca Garcilaso de la Vega described in his book Comentarios Reales de los Incas,” archeologist Sabino Quispe told Agencia Andina. “It describes what the Sacsayhuamán fortress was like, since Garcilaso de la Vega saw it with his own eyes during the first years of the Spanish conquest.”
Spanish Conquistadors allegedly destroyed the structures and used the stones from the buildings to construct Cusco’s main church and other colonial buildings in the region. Francisco Pizarro, who led the conquest against the Inca Empire, reportedly ordered the remains of the buildings to be covered so the local population would not reuse them.
Archaeologists have recently discovered other pre-Inca and Inca artifacts buried in the Sacsayhuamán fortress. Authorities from the National Institute of Culture, INC, announced last week the unearthing of a temple and ceremonial roadway, demonstrating the site had a religious, as well as military, importance.
