Photo Gallery

A panoramic view of the city of Cusco, taken from the hills near the Sacsayhuamán fortress. The name Cusco means ‘Navel of the World’. According to Inca mythology, the sun god Inti sent his children, Manco Cápac and Mama Ocllo, down to Earth. They were to found a city wherever a golden staff sank effortlessly into the ground – this happened in the fertile valley of Cusco. In the 15th century, the ninth Inca ruler, Pachacútec Yupanqui, radically transformed the city. He expanded Cusco in the monumental stone style and arranged the city plan in the shape of a puma – the symbol of power and strength. The head of the puma was the zigzag fortress of Sacsayhuamán. – 1969

Cuzco, situated at 3,500 metres above sea level and known as the ‘Navel of the World’, was founded by the Incas around 1100 AD. In 1536, the conquistadors destroyed the city and rebuilt it in the Spanish style, making use of many Inca foundations. Thus, the buildings themselves clearly illustrate the coexistence and simultaneity of two peoples and cultures, as is evident in the colourful street scene. The vast majority of the 120,000 inhabitants, however, are still indigenous people. Cuzco is the starting point for visits to most of the major Inca sites such as Pisac, Machu Picchu, Ollantaytambo and Sacsayhuamán, but it also boasts magnificent examples of Spanish colonial architecture: the cathedral, the Jesuit church of La Merced, the churches of Santo Domingo – built on the site of the ancient Inca sun temple – and Belén de los Reyes. During the reconstruction following the 1950 earthquake, efforts were made to restore the churches to their original appearance from before 1650. - Book: Picture 80 - Peru - 1969

The historic Hatun Rumiyoq alley in Cusco features a masterfully constructed Inca wall made of massive, perfectly hewn blocks of green diorite. These blocks originate from the original palace of the Inca ruler Inka Roca. The stones were fitted together so precisely, without any mortar, that not even a knife blade can fit between them. Following the Spanish conquest, the conquistadors erected their own buildings on top of the extremely earthquake-resistant Inca foundations. The white façade in the upper section belongs to what is now the Archbishop’s Palace. Roughly in the middle of this wall lies the world-famous "Piedra de los 12 ángulos". This single stone has exactly twelve corners, which fit seamlessly into the surrounding wall. – Peru – 1969

Alpacas and llamas graze in front of the impressive zigzag walls of Sacsayhuamán, a monumental archaeological site of the Inca civilisation situated directly above the city of Cusco. The fortress was built in the 15th century under the Inca ruler Pachacútec Yupanqui. The heaviest stones in the complex weigh over 100 tonnes. The blocks were hewn with such precision and fitted together without mortar that often not even a sheet of paper can fit between them. The historic city plan of Cusco was laid out by the Incas in the shape of a puma – the symbol of the earthly world. Sacsayhuamán formed the head of the puma, whilst the zigzag-shaped walls represented the animal’s teeth (or the lightning bolts of the thunder god Illapa). The entire complex served primarily as a ceremonial and religious centre. Today, only around 20% to 40% of the original structure remains. The Spanish removed the smaller stones to build colonial churches and houses in Cusco; however, the gigantic megaliths forming the foundations remained firmly in place. – 1969

At 3500 meters above sea level, the cyclopean fortress of Sacsayhuamán dominates the city of Cuzco. With its three monolithic ramparts in the shape of saw teeth, this “Maginot Line” of the Incas “overshadows the pyramids on the Nile ...” (Tirso de Molina, 1583-1648). Some of these blocks of this giant puzzle, set like gemstones by unknown and great jewelers, are 9 meters high, 4 meters thick and weigh more than 350 tons! - 1969

A re-enactment of the Inti Raymi (‘Festival of the Sun’), a traditional ceremony from the Inca period honouring the sun god Inti. Originally established by Inca Pachacútec around 1430, the festival marks the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere and the Inca New Year. The event takes place every year without fail on 24 June. The photograph shows people dressed as Inca rulers, wearing traditional headdresses, colourful robes and carrying ritual vessels. – Cusco – Peru – 1976

The photograph shows a large crowd sitting on the historic Inca stone walls of the Sacsayhuamán fortress in Cusco, watching the re-enactment of the ancient rituals and dances of the traditional Inti Raymi sun festival up close. – Peru – 1976

A kero, a wooden ritual cup from the early colonial period (height 19.5 cm). The colourful illustrations in the style of the chronicler Huamán Poma de Ayala depict the Inca on his golden throne holding keros – on this side, however, only two warriors with spears and shields can be seen. The graphic representations on the central ring are interpreted as tocapus or a form of writing. Museo de la Universidad Nacional de San Agustín, Arequipa, Peru. - Book: Picture 128 - Peru - 1976

A typical vessel of Inca culture, a so-called Type A aryballos (height 34 cm, mid-13th century) in the Coastal Inca style from the Ica Valley. The paintings vary depending on the region. Museo Regional de Ica, Peru - Book: Picture 123 - Peru - 1976

The picture shows a quipu, a complex and enigmatic system of knotted cords that was used by the Incas and other earlier Andean cultures for data storage and administration. A quipu consists of a horizontal main cord from which numerous coloured subsidiary cords of varying lengths hang down. The type of knots, the colour and length of the cords, and the position of the knots were used to encode primarily numerical data (such as tax figures or stock levels), but possibly also narrative information and calendar dates. To this day, the exact codes of this ‘knotted script’ have not been fully deciphered, making it one of the most fascinating examples of pre-European writing and administrative history in South America. – Peru – 1976

The image shows how an Inca quipu (khipu) works – a system of knotted strings used to represent numbers in the decimal system. This specific example illustrates an addition problem. The horizontal dotted lines divide the strings into place values (from top to bottom: hundreds, tens, ones). String Ba: 1 hundred, 3 tens, 4 ones = 134 String Bb: 3 hundreds, 2 tens, 9 ones = 329 String Bc: 0 hundreds, 7 tens, 1 unit = 71 String C (total): 5 hundreds, 3 tens, 4 units = 534 The mathematical equation is: 134 + 329 + 71 = 534

A 3.700 m de altitud se alzan las cuatro terrazas de Tampu Machay, el «baño del Inca». Unos nichos trapezoidales adornan el «templo del agua» más elegante, que servía para la purificación ritual del monarca y su esposa, la Coya, con motivo de su unión ritual. – Cuzco – Perú – 1969

Three kilometres from Cuzco stands the huge rock of the Kenko sanctuary, which is covered with grooves, jagged edges, steps, altars and animal symbols. In the centre of the magnificent amphitheatre, surrounded in a fan-shaped arrangement by 19 niches or seats, stood a stone totem in the shape of a seated puma. – Peru – 1976

The picture shows the colonial church of Nuestra Señora de Monserrat in Chinchero. The village lies around 30 kilometres north-west of Cusco at an altitude of approximately 3,762 metres. The Spanish built the church in the early 17th century (around 1607) directly on the foundations and palace walls of the Inca ruler Túpac Yupanqui. – Every Sunday, the large square in front of the historic complex is transformed into a lively, colourful hub of Andean culture: the traditional Sunday market. The market is a real meeting place for the indigenous population. Families from the surrounding mountain communities travel there to trade crops such as potatoes, quinoa and broad beans directly, or to swap them amongst themselves. The women from Chinchero wear their traditional red and black costumes. They sell world-famous, hand-woven alpaca products and demonstrate how the wool is dyed using natural plants and insects (cochineal). – 1976

The picture shows the impressive archaeological site of Moray, a historic Inca terraced complex in Peru. It is situated on a high plateau in the Sacred Valley of the Incas, around 50 kilometres north-west of Cusco. The funnel-shaped design creates a temperature difference of up to 15 °C between the top and bottom terraces. The Incas used these zones to gradually acclimatise and cultivate crops from other parts of the empire (such as the coast or the tropical lowlands) to the harsh high-altitude climate of the Andes. – Peru – 1969

According to legend, Ayar Cachi was locked away by his three brothers in a cave on Mount Tamputoco. Trapped in the darkness and deeply saddened by the bitter betrayal of his own family, Ayar Cachi began to weep inconsolably. His salty tears of anger and despair flowed out of the mountain in vast quantities. They gathered in the valley in thousands of tiny pools. Over time, the scorching Andean sun dried out these pools, leaving behind the white and pink salt that is still harvested today. Over 3,000 small, terraced basins are fed by an underground, highly saline thermal spring called Qoripujio. – The Maras salt flats in a side valley of the Sacred Valley of the Incas – 1969

The classic general view of the ruins of Machu Picchu. In the middle distance the dominant Huayna Picchu. - 1969

The famous Inca ruin city of Machu Picchu, photographed from the opposite peak of Huayna Picchu. On the left, on the hillside, you can see the winding road (Carretera Hiram Bingham) along which buses climb up from Aguas Calientes. The photograph looks south from the higher slopes of Huayna Picchu towards the ridge below, on which stands the citadel of Machu Picchu. The agricultural terraces and stone buildings of the historic Inca site lie at an altitude of around 2,430 metres. – 1976

Completely hidden from view from the bottom of the wild Urubamba Valley, the ‘lost city’ of Machu Picchu stands enthroned on an impregnable granite pedestal at a dizzying altitude of 2,500 metres, in the shadow of Huayna Picchu. It remained hidden for 400 years until the American explorer Hiram Bingham miraculously rediscovered it in 1911. – 1976

The Inca mountain fortress of Machu Picchu, situated at an altitude of 2,690 metres, set against the cone of Huayna Picchu. None of the Spanish conquistadors mention this city on the edge of the jungle, overlooking the River Urubamba (on the right), one of the headwaters of the Amazon. Like other pucaras (fortified settlements), Machu Picchu was self-sufficient in an emergency, but the terraced fields could feed no more than 500 people. This late Inca complex contains buildings of various styles, foremost among them the Royal Palace, constructed from beautifully hewn granite blocks with trapezoidal gateways and window openings. But there are also densely packed, simple stone huts and barrack-like quarters for the soldiers. An oval tower – the only one of its kind – has led to speculation that Machu Picchu was further expanded even after the arrival of the Spaniards. The city was not discovered until 1911 by an expedition searching for the legendary last Inca fortress, Vilcabamba. - Book: Picture 81 - Peru - 1976

The mountain fortress of Machu Picchu, Peru. Initially, it was believed that the various types of masonry found in Cuzco, Machu Picchu and other Inca structures dated from different periods. Today, it is thought that both the walls constructed from interlocking megalithic blocks and those made from smooth, uniformly sized stones, as well as the mortar-bonded fieldstone technique were all employed by the same master builders from the period after 1440, depending on their intended purpose: the megalithic construction method for retaining walls, smooth, evenly rounded ashlars for representative buildings, and mortar-bonded rubble stone walls – alongside adobe bricks – for functional buildings. In Machu Picchu, however, various elements, such as the oval Torreón, suggest that construction continued here even into the colonial period. Inca architecture otherwise features only rectangular or trapezoidal shapes, and vertical arches are completely absent, which, for example, imposed certain limitations on the construction of gates. - Book: Picture 125 - Peru - 1969

The Intihuatana, the ‘resting place of the sun’ or ‘stone to which the sun is tied’, at Machu Picchu. Depending on the shadow cast by this stone, the Inca priests determined the season and thus the time for sowing, an approaching rainy season, and so on. - Book: Picture 127 - Peru - 1976

Along the partly restored Barracas of the former farmers, 100 stairs with more than 3000 steps run down the slope. They connect 260 palaces, temples, sanctuaries, thermal baths, sacrificial altars, caves of mummies and "hanging gardens" and make Machu Picchu a "stone poem". . . a challenge of nature ... an unfathomable secret. - 1976

The imposing, snow-capped peak of Nevado Salcantay (6,271 m) lies directly to the south of the Inca citadel. It forms the geographical and spiritual centre of the region. For the Incas, Salcantay was one of the most important deities (apus), controlling the weather, the rain and the fertility of the region. Viewed from the central sundial rock (Intihuatana) in Machu Picchu, the Southern Cross stands directly above the summit of Salcantay at its highest point during the rainy season. On a clear day, the mountain’s white, ice-capped pyramid rises high in the south, towering far beyond the green ridges and ruins, lending the site a deeper sacred dimension. – Peru – 1976

The picture shows the Sacred Valley of the Incas (Spanish: Valle Sagrado de los Incas) in the Cusco region of Peru. The Urubamba River (also known as the Río Vilcanota) winds its way through the fertile valley. In the background and on the slopes, you can see the characteristic agricultural terraces (andenes) built by the Incas, as well as winding roads. – 1976

The Sacred Valley of the Incas (Valle Sagrado de los Incas) in the Cusco region of Peru. On the left in the background, the Urubamba River (Río Urubamba) flows through the flat valley floor. On the right-hand side, the characteristic, curved agricultural terraces of the Incas can be seen. These served to make steep mountain slopes cultivable, prevent erosion and create microclimates for various crops (primarily maize). The flat floor of the Urubamba Valley is divided into regular, chequerboard-like fields and is still used intensively for traditional farming today. A historic, highly sophisticated system of canals runs through the fields, channelling meltwater from the surrounding Andean glaciers directly onto the cultivated land. – 1969

The picture shows the archaeological complex of Písac, one of the most significant Inca ruins in the Sacred Valley of the Incas in Peru. The site is perched on a ridge above the town of Písac and is renowned for its gigantic, stepped agricultural terraces (andenes). These terraces were masterfully integrated by the Incas into the steep mountain slopes to create microclimates for the cultivation of various crops (primarily maize) whilst preventing soil erosion. At the top of the cliff, the stone remains of Inca outposts and residential buildings can also be seen, which served to defend and monitor the valley. – 1969

In a widening of the deeply incised Urubamba Valley, which links Cuzco with Machu Picchu, lies the small town of Pisac, famous for its Sunday market. On the slopes above the town, artfully laid out agricultural terraces have stretched upwards since Inca times, transforming even the steepest mountain flanks into gigantic staircases that were used for growing potatoes, maize, oca and quinoa. - Book: Picture 126 - Peru - 1976

In the idyllic ‘Eden’ of the tropical sacred valley of the Incas, the great ruined city of Pisac, one of the ‘capitals’ of the empire, stands at an altitude of 3,100 metres. Around thirty residences of the finest architecture surround the elliptical Intihuatana, dedicated to the worship of the sun. – 1969

The impressive Inca ruins of Písac, situated in the Sacred Valley of the Incas in the Cusco region of Peru. The archaeological site lies on a mountain ridge high above the village of Písac and the River Urubamba. It is famous for its sophisticated architecture, the extensive agricultural terraces (andenes) and its strategic and religious significance during the Inca Empire. In the foreground is the Q’alla Q’asa sector, which, according to researchers, probably served as a residential quarter for guards, soldiers or priests. The buildings are precisely constructed from stone and nestle perfectly against the steep terrain. In the centre lies a sacred rock – the ‘place where the sun is tied’ – which served as an astronomical calendar for the Incas to determine the solstices. – 1976

The central ceremonial area known as Intihuatana within the Parque Arqueológico de Písac in the Sacred Valley of the Incas in Peru. The most striking feature in this area is the semi-circular, D-shaped wall in the top right-hand corner of the picture. It encloses the sacred Intihuatana stone. In Quechua, the term means ‘place where the sun is tied’. It is a pillar hewn from natural rock which served the Incas as a precise solar compass, an astronomical observatory and a ritual altar for determining solstices and harvest cycles. The precise stonemasonry (masonry of finely hewn pink granite without mortar) clearly distinguishes this royal and religious precinct from the simpler residential or military structures in the rest of the fortress. – 1976

Isla del Sol (Sun Island) on Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, with the snow-capped peaks of the Cordillera Real in the background. In Inca mythology, the island is regarded as the birthplace of the sun and is home to numerous archaeological sites. In the foreground, typical historic terraced fields and ruins can be seen. – Bolivia – 1976

This is one of the unusual gateways featuring the stepped meanders of Iñakuyu, the palace and temple of the maidens on the Moon Island. 2,000 male and female servants of the moon goddess Quilla tended this silver-clad sanctuary and cultivated the terraced fields. The Inca vestal virgins spun their precious vicuña wool there and wove it together with hummingbird feathers and gold. – Bolivia – 1976

On the boat trip from Moon Island back to the mainland. In the background, you can see the snow-capped peaks of the Cordillera Real. In Inca religion, Moon Island is regarded as a sacred place where, according to legend, the creator god Viracocha commanded the moon to rise into the sky. The island is home to the ruins of the Inca temple of Iñakuyu (Palace of the Sun Maidens), where selected women performed ritual duties. Bolivia – 1976

The world-famous Takesi Trail (Camino Precolombino Takesi) in Bolivia, one of the best-preserved sections of the pre-Columbian Inca Trail within the historic road network. The perfectly laid, flat paving stones and drainage channels were originally constructed by the Tiwanaku and Inca cultures. They protect the steep mountainside from severe erosion caused by rainwater. The highest point of the Inca Trail is the windswept Apacheta Takesi Pass, which runs at a spectacular altitude of 4,640 metres right alongside the snow-capped flanks of Mount Mururata. The photograph shows the paved ascent to this mountain pass. – Bolivia – 1976