Coricancha

Coordinates: 13°31′12″S 71°58′32″W / 13.52000°S 71.97556°W / -13.52000; -71.97556
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the mountain in Bolivia, see
Intikancha. For the site in Costa Rica, see Curi Cancha Wildlife Refuge
.
Coricancha
Qurikancha
Coricancha with Convent of Santo Domingo above
Coricancha is located in Peru
Coricancha
Shown within Peru
Location Peru
Cusco
RegionAndes
Coordinates13°31′12″S 71°58′32″W / 13.52000°S 71.97556°W / -13.52000; -71.97556
TypeSanctuary
History
PeriodsLate Horizon
CulturesInca
Site notes
Latin America and the Caribbean
Depiction of Pachacuti worshipping Inti (god Sun) at Coricancha, in the 17th century second chronicles of Martín de Murúa.

Coricancha,

Quechua quri gold; kancha enclosure)[14] was the most important temple in the Inca Empire, and was described by early Spanish colonialists.[15][16] It is located in Cusco
, Peru, which was the capital of the empire.

History

Originally named Intikancha or Intiwasi,[12] it was dedicated to Inti, and is located at the former Inca capital of Cusco. The High Priest resided in the temple and offered up the ordinary sacrifices, accompanied by superstitious rites, with the help of other priests.[17] Most of the temple was destroyed after the 16th-century war with the Spanish conquistadors, as settlers also took it apart to build their own churches and residences. Much of its stonework was used as the foundation for the seventeenth-century Santo Domingo Convent. It was built after the 1650 earthquake destroyed the first Dominican convent.

To construct Coricancha, the Inca used ashlar masonry, building from the placement of similarly sized cuboid stones that they hand cut and shaped for this purpose.[18] The use of ashlar masonry made the temple much more difficult to construct, as the Inca did not use any stone with a slight imperfection or break.[18] By choosing this masonry type, the Inca intentionally demonstrated the importance of the building through the extent of the labor necessary to build the structure.[18] Through the arduous labor needed to construct buildings with ashlar masonry, this form of construction came to signify the Inca's imperial power to mobilize and direct local labor forces.[18] The replication throughout Andean South America of Inca architectural techniques, such as those employed at Coricancha, expressed the extent of Inca control over a vast geographic region.[18]

Pachakutiq Inca Yupanqui rebuilt Cusco and the House of the Sun, enriching it with more oracles and edifices, and adding plates of fine gold. He provided vases of gold and silver for the Mama-cunas, nuns or cloistered women, to use in the veneration services. These celibate girls and women were mostly employed in weaving and in dyeing woollen cloth for the service of the temple, as well as in making chicha.[19] Finally, he took the bodies of the seven deceased Incas and adorned them with masks, head-dresses, medals, bracelets, and sceptres of gold, placing them on a golden bench.[20]

The walls were once covered in sheets of gold,[21] and the adjacent courtyard was filled with golden statues. Spanish reports tell of an opulence that was "fabulous beyond belief". When the Spanish in 1533 required the Inca to raise a ransom in gold for the life of their leader Atahualpa, most of the gold was collected from Coricancha.[22]

...the temple in the whole edifice was of excellent masonry, the stones very well placed and fixed. Some of the stones were very large. There was no mortar, either of earth or lime, but a sort of bitumen with which they used to fix their stones. The stones themselves are so well worked that no joining or cement can be seen.[23]

Acquisition by Spain

The Spanish colonists built the

textiles, and sacred idols from the site.[12]

Today, at the Convent of Santo Domingo, are four remaining rooms of the ancient temple with sloping walls, in which there can still be seen broken stone relics from the House of the Sun (Inti-huasi), consisting primarily of blocks of grey

vitrified layer that allowed for the reflection of light at night.[24]

Inca astronomy

Inca constellations in the Milky Way

Similarities are found in the semicircular temples found in the Temple of the Sun in Cusco, the Torreon in Machu Picchu, and the Temple of the Sun in Písac. In particular, all three exhibit a "parabolic enclosure wall" of the finest stonework, as Bingham describes it. These structures were also used for similar purposes, including the observation of solstices and Inca constellations.

Within the

Southern Cross, and a toad, hamp'atu, to the lower right. A serpent, machaguay, extends off to the right.[25][26][27]

During the

curacas would proceed from the Haucaypata, where they greeted the rising June solstice sun, to the inner court of the Coricancha. On a bench in the "sun room", the Sapa Inca sat with the mummies of his ancestors. This and other rooms were oriented northeast–southwest, shingled in gold plate, and embedded with emeralds and turquoise. Focusing the sun's rays with a concave mirror, the Sapa Inca would light a fire for the burnt sacrifice of llamas. Children were also sacrificed in certain circumstances; they were brought to Cusco following a ceque and huaca route of tribute.[27]
: 199–201 

The Coricancha is located at the confluence of two rivers, one of which being the Huatanay River which is now highly polluted. Here, according to Inca myth, is where Manco Cápac decided to build the Coricancha, the foundation of Cusco, and the eventual Inca Empire. According to Ed Krupp, "The Inca built the Coricancha at the confluence because that place represented terrestrially the organizing pivot of heaven."[27]: 270–276 

Images

  • Coricancha, Convent of Santo Domingo, and courtyard (Intipampa)
    Coricancha, Convent of Santo Domingo, and courtyard (Intipampa)
  • A digital reconstruction of its base during the Inca period
    A digital reconstruction of its base during the Inca period
  • One of the original rooms from the Inca period
    One of the original rooms from the Inca period
  • A digital reconstruction of the room when it was filled with gold, according to the description of Inca Garcilaso de la Vega
    A digital reconstruction of the room when it was filled with gold, according to the description of Inca Garcilaso de la Vega
  • Ceiling ornament
    Ceiling ornament
  • Colonial Cusco School paintings, inside
    Colonial Cusco School paintings, inside
  • Original trapezoid windows inside the temple
    Original trapezoid windows inside the temple

See also

References

  1. ISBN 9781134259304
    .
  2. ISBN 9780486137643
    .
  3. ISBN 978-0271048802
    .
  4. ISBN 9780292792043
    .
  5. ISBN 9780292792029
    .
  6. OCLC 706928387
    .
  7. ^ "Machu Picchu, la Eternidad de la Piedra". Edición Extraordinaria (in Spanish). 6 (9). Universidad Alas Peruanas: 79–87. 2011.
  8. ISBN 9781465458919
    .
  9. ISBN 9781615353651. {{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help
    )
  10. ^ Compendio histórico del Perú (in Spanish). Editorial Milla Batres. 1993. pp. 586, 593.
  11. ^ "GRUPO ARQUEOLÓGICO DE QORICANCHA". Retrieved 2017-05-29.
  12. ^ a b c Qurikancha, A Homage to the Mystical, Magical, most Famous and Oldest City of the American Continent
  13. ^ Cristóbal Estombelo Taco, Inka taytanchiskunaq kawsay nintayacharispa, Instituto Superior Pùblico La Salle - PROYECTO CRAM II, Urubamba, Cusco 2002 (in Quechua)
  14. ^ Teofilo Laime Ajacopa (2007). Diccionario Bilingüe: Iskay simipi yuyayk’anch: Quechua – Castellano / Castellano – Quechua (PDF). La Paz, Bolivia: futatraw.ourproject.org.
  15. OCLC 706928387
  16. OCLC 84961506
    .
  17. OCLC 706928387
    .
  18. ^ a b c d e Carolyn Dean, “The Inka Married the Earth: Integrated Outcrops and the Making of Place,” The Art Bulletin 89, no. 3 (2007): 502–18.
  19. Clements R. Markham, Hakluyt Society: London 1883, p. 85
  20. ISBN 9781463688653
  21. ISBN 9781420941142
  22. ISBN 0-8223-2146-7
    .
  23. OCLC 706928387
    .
  24. YouTube
    , VIPORA TV, May 2020, minutes 1:16:36–1:21:25.
  25. Bibcode:1983JHAS...14...37D
    .
  26. ISBN 9781842125854
    .
  27. ^
    ISBN 9780486428826
    .

External links
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