El Mirador de Inkaraqay

“El Mirador de Inkaraqay is a small structure located on the north slope of the Waynapicchu mountain. The architectural remains that still remain on the site consist of three parallel walls built perpendicular to the steep slope of the hill. The carefully executed lithic masonry is cushioned with slightly sunken joints. This type of masonry is characteristic of buildings of great importance and prestige. There are two sets of niches at the back of the main wall. Observation holes are present in the middle and northernmost niche.

The analysis of the construction process allows to postulate the hypothesis that the entire said wall was planned according to the appropriate locations and orientations of the holes.

The way to generate the observation holes is of particular importance and has been especially well defined in the case of the northern niche.

Behind the wall with the niches, there is a narrow corridor. Its rear wall is built directly into the slope of the hill. The masonry was made from rectangular lithic elements placed in a horizontal pattern. This wall must have presented a plaster since it was a common practice in Inca architecture, especially in the case of buildings with prestigious ceremonial functions. It could be of importance in facilitating observations of the sun's rays passing through the hole in the north niche.

Architectural analysis shows that they could not have had any other function than that of observation.” (Astete et al. 2017)

The site was discovered in 1982 by the anthropologist Fernando Astete Victoria. Due to its exceptional nature, the site was selected for further investigation.

After the preliminary work carried out by the Park team in 2012, the research was continued in the years 2013 – 2019 by a Polish-Peruvian-Italian team, with the support of the 3D Scanning and Modeling Laboratory of the University of Science and Technology. of Wrocław, which was responsible for the documentation on the 3D laser scanning technology of this facility. It was determined that the holes were used to track the sunrise over the Yanantin summit during the June solstice. Furthermore, the heliacal rise of the Pleiades could also be traced through both orifices. It should be noted at this point that the observation of the heliacal rising of the Pleiades was of great importance for the pre-Hispanic Andean communities, including the Incas. The appearance of this group of stars was used to forecast the harvest in the coming season.

The site was investigated with the use of remote sensing methods (LIDAR and GPR). Spatially limited prospecting excavations lead to the conclusion that construction of the building was probably never completed. The partially preserved original access road was investigated, first to determine if the object has been isolated or if it has been placed in a communication path that extends further downstream.

Articles:

Victoria, Fernando Astete, Mariusz Ziółkowski, and Jacek Kościuk. "The discovery of the Inca astronomical observatory of the Mirador de Inkaraqay" (2017).

Victoria, Fernando Astete, Mariusz Ziółkowski, and Jacek Kościuk. «On Inca astronomical instruments: the observatory at Inkaraqay–El Mirador (National Archaeological Park of Machu Picchu, Peru).» Latin American Studies 37 (2017): 9-25.

External pages:

https://www.polskieradio.pl/7/5098/Artykul/2328696,Inti-Raymi-Jak-obchodzi-sie-Swieto-Slonca