For this last post, I am writing about Cajamarca, a beautiful place located in the Andes region in Peru. The city of Cajamarca on its own is a marvelous place to see how the culture has evolved throughout time. You can see the pre-incan influences, the Incan influences, and the Spanish influences. About 20km south of the town you can find Cumbemayo, an amazing pre-Incan archeological site where you can see the highest hydraulic technology the pre-Incas had access to.
The name comes from a complex quechua (the native language) word; cumbe: fine, and mayo: river; combined the words mean “fine river”. Which is very descriptive of what you can find here, a long water canal built by the Incas that was discovered on 1937. The aqueduct was built in three sections. The first section was made from volcanic rock that is white-gray in color, it has a 24in. depth, and a zig zag pattern. The second section is a little longer, and the third section is the longest and it ends at a reservoir.
This isn’t a very known location for a lot of tourists, but when they do go, they are astonished by the great views and the history that you can see throughout the hike. Visitors go to observe how the aqueduct was made, when they go up the stairways built, they can observe many things. There are many undecipherable petroglyphs and there is also a sanctuary which is a huge cliff resembling a man’s face with a grotto as its mouth.
People also call the are the “stone forest” due to the many volcanic rock formations. Throughout time these have acquired interesting shapes. Some say they resemble monks or friars forming part of a procession; so they call the group of rocks “Los Frailones” (the friars).
Historians believe that this was a sacred place where the Incas performed rituals and sacrifices. I find it amazing how this place has been able to stay intact for over a thousand years. It wasn’t even the Incas who build this, it was pre-Incan civilizations who created this hydraulic marvel. It makes you wonder how advanced of a technological knowledge they had. And how it developed throughout time. Maybe that civilization influenced the Incas to create more marvelous wonders such as Machu Picchu. With so little resources, this civilization was able to come up with engineering concepts to facilitate the use of water.
