Tarawasi: On The Inca Road

Tarawasi is an Ushnu on the Great Inca Highway. The Incas built a series of Ushnus (ceremonial stepped-platforms) all along the Royal Highway that ran thousands of miles north to south down the mighty mountain chain of the Andes.

This episode of IncaTalk finds Peter & Maren at a superb and well-preserved ushnu that still stands at Tarawasi near the small town of Limatambo, in the Apurimac valley near Cusco.

This drawing, done by Waman Poma*, is an illustration of Manco Inca sitting on an Ushnu.

Manco Inca was the leader of the Inca resistance from 1536 to 1544. Here he is surrounded by his generals and seated on an Ushnu that may have been very similar to the one at Tarawasi that we highlight in this second episode of IncaTalk.

*Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala (ca. 1535 – 1616), also known as Huamán Poma or Wamán Poma, was a Quechua nobleman known for chronicling and denouncing the ill treatment of the natives of the Andes by the Spanish after their conquest. Today, Guamán Poma is noted for his illustrated chronicle.

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