Puca Pucara Information

HISTORY OF PUCA PUCARA

The name fortress of Puca Pucará comes from the voices Quechua puca, ‘red,’ and Pucara, ‘fortress or place defended,’ which means ‘red fortress’; The rocks with which it has been implied built turn reddish with twilight.

This fortress is an architectural building located on the outskirts of Cusco – Peru. It is one example of the military architecture of the Inca Empire, which consists of superimposed terraces, aqueducts, watchtowers, interior plazas, walls, and stairways. On the western side, you can find a facade in an accessible area, giving the appearance of being a small square.

This fortress presents three walls that originate a sort of levels; thus, we have:

The first wall has a winding path that carefully avoids cutting out the protruding rocks. Towards the north side and behind the outer wall are six rooms of different sizes, irregularly arranged not to touch the stones that make up the wall. Towards the west, a high place of trapezoidal form is acceded by a staircase from the outside. Buildings on two sides surrounding the square rooms of a regular trace in this open space do not seem to belong to a fortified scope.

A second wall surrounds the central elevation. There are comprehensive South and East platforms between this and the first. Behind the double wall are three rooms atypical for Inca architecture since two have no rectangular but trapezoidal floor plan.

The third wall surrounds the summit, and there are no traces of the buildings.

LOCATION OF THE PUCARA FORTRESS

Puca Pucara does locate on the east side of the road and one kilometer before reaching Tambomachay. The site occupies another typical rock in the plain of Sacsayhuamán.
The archaeological group of Pucapucara, located on the asphalted road that leads to Pisaq, is 7 km from the city of Cusco; the altitude is 3.680 m.s.n.m.