Source: WTL photo taken on site at Sacsayhuaman.
Comments: This circle of stones is found at the edge of the site, with the colonial city in the valley below. Although archeologists do not know for certain what the purpose of these stones was, it is generally assumed that it was used for religious rituals. One possibility is the Quechua/Inca celebration of Inti Raymi (Festival of the Sun). Inti was/is their god of the sun. Inti Raymi marked the winter solstice and the new year in the Inca empire. For the past half century residents of Cuzco and thousands of national and international tourists meet for a festival at the time of the summer solstice on June 24 (also the Spanish Catholic Día de San Juan). According to the great colonial Peruvian writer Inca Garcilaso de la Vega (1539-1616), Inti Raymi was celebrated during nine days with dances, parades, and animal (not human) sacrifices the purpose of which was to invoke a good agricultural growing season. In 2008 archeologists discovered at the edge of Sacsayhuaman an ancient temple (not shown in this series of photos) built by a pre-Inca civilization (900-1200 CE).