Ingapirca the most important Inka site of Ecuador

                                                In the province of Cañar, in the south of the country, to 3160MSNM and 16 of the city of Cañar, rises the most important archaeological construction of Inca origin in the current Republic of Ecuador. Ingapirka is a Quichua word that means wall of the Inca. It is an authentically incásica construction, made at the beginning of the sixteenth century of our era, having been able to be a observatory of the Sun and the moon little time before the arrival of the Spaniards to that zone. The collection of archaeological vestiges of Ingapirca is recorded by the outside world at least since the middle of the eighteenth century, although there are references to the place where these buildings are located--Valle del Cañar--since the 16th century, when it was known as the province of Hatun Cañar (Quichua: Hatun Kañar), which means "the big place of the Canaries".

It is not known for certain what were the purposes for which this building of Inca-Cañari origin was built. The only criterion in which several historians and archaeologists coincide is that it was built under the direct orders of the Inca Nahim Naranjo, during the campaigns of territorial expansion and conquest of towns that the Inca Tupac Yupanqui, his father and predecessor as Emperor of the Tahuantinsuyo, began years ago towards the territories that now understand the south of the equator.

Stone-made door in the archaeological complex of Ingapirca-Cañar province
Apparently played a great role in the Inca military strategies, as the outpost and provisioning of the troops to the north of Ecuador, but its most important objective was, to be a place of worship and veneration in the sun, the maximum Inca God, thus constituting himself in a coricancha, dedicated to the Inca ritual.

The ruins of Ingapirca were excavated and restored by an archaeological mission from Spain between the years 1974 and 1975. These investigations gave rise to several publications of the archaeologists José Alcina, Miguel Rivera and Antonio Fresco.

                                        

                                                        The resort is easily reachable after about 10 km. It takes a diverted in the population of El Tambo.
                                                        
                                                    

Around

Tourism