Ancient civilizations-2

Temples and shrines

Temples and shrines housing fetishes of the cult were occupied by priests, their attendants, and the Chosen Women. In general, temples were not intended to shelter the celebrants, since most ceremonies were held outside the temple proper. The ruins of the Temple of Viracocha at San Pedro Cacha (Peru), however, had a ground plan that measured 330 by 87 feet, which indicates that it was designed for use other than the storage of priestly regalia.

The Sun Temple in Cuzco is the best-known of the Inca temples. Another, at Vilcashuman (which was regarded as the geographic centre of the empire), has a large temple still existing. Near Mount Aconcagua in Argentina, at the southern limit of the Inca empire, “there was a temple…an ancient oracle held in high regard where they made their sacrifices,” and on Titicaca Island, one of the largest of several islands in Lake Titicaca, there was a temple of the sun.

As the Inca conquered new territories, temples were erected in the new lands. In Caranqui, Ecuador, one such temple was described by a chronicler as being filled with great vessels of gold and silver. At Latacunga (Llacta cunga) in Ecuador there was a sun temple where sacrifices were made; part of the temple was still visible when the German explorer and geographer Alexander von Humboldt sketched the ruins in 1801.

The Sun Temple in Cuzco, built with stones “all matched and joined,” had a circumference of more than 1,200 feet. A fragment of the wall still extant is testimony to the accuracy of the chronicler’s description. Within the temple was an image of the sun “of great size,” and in another precinct, the Golden Enclosure (Corincancha), were gold models of cornstalks, llamas, and lumps of earth. Portions of the land, which supported the temples, the priests, and the Chosen Women, were allotted to the sun and administered for the priests.

Along with the shrines and temples, huacas (sacred sites) were widespread. A huaca could be a man-made temple, mountain, hill, or bridge, such as the great huacachaca across the Apurímac River. A huaca also might be a mummy bundle, especially if it was that of a lord-Inca. On high points of passage in the Andes, propitiatory cairns (apacheta, “piles of stones”) were made, to which, in passing, each person would add a small stone and pray that his journey be lightened. The idea of huaca was intimately bound up with religion, combining the magical and the charm-bearing.