Chinchero, Cusco, Peru

Chinchero - the Incan birthplace of the Rainbow. It is thought that Chinchero was occupied  by Inca Tupac Yupanqui, son of Pachacutec. Due to the rich fertile soil, Inca Tupac Yupanqui ordered the construction of multiple aqueducts and terraces for agriculture and farming land used to provide potatoes, ulluco, oca, quinoa, and fava beans.

The remains of three shrines are found which are called Titiqaqa, Pumaqaqa, Chincana; that are enormous outcrops of limestone carefully carved by ancient Peruvians, shaped as steps and stairways. There is a group of terraces built that follow the geographic shape of the hills and slopes.

As with so many sacred sites and ancient locations in the South Americas, after destruction of the native city, the Spanish Conquistadors built from the ruins by recycling the pre-cut stone materials for their own purposes. In this case, a Catholic church built in the early 17th Century on top of the walls of the former main temple / palace of Chincheros.   

At the base of every wall is the ancient polished dry-stone walls fitted to perfection against each other to survive the movement created by earthquakes. On top is the roughly hewn, piled up rocks added by the Incan from the 1500's onwards and those who survived the conquest who laboured to construct the newly founded churches across the conquered landscape.

The walls are covered with painted murals depicting white skinned Christian Idols, White Winged Angels  and Saints wearing priest robes with full beards - none of which are native to the local Quechan indigenous population, who even in modern times continue to  worship the wooden and stone carvings of Spanish Saints without questioning why they worship idols who look nothing like their fellow brethren.