Tipon

Isabel and I just realized that we never posted any pictures of our trip to Tipon, so here goes!  Back in mid-October we spent a day visiting some  of the ruins south of Cusco.  Tipon is the site of a natural spring that comes bubbling up out from the base of a mountain.  The Inca built a series terraces and canals here to use the spring for irrigation.

While the construction of the site is amazing, what made the greatest impression on me was its placement and orientation.  Krista asked me to climb up behind the highest terrace to take a photo, and from that vantage point I had the distinct feeling that whomever designed Tipon cared very much about the way it was shaped and what it looked out onto.

The terraces along the outer edge of Tipon follow the contours of the valley in which it sits.  As your eyes move towards the center of the site you can see that the terraces gradually become more linear.  The steps to get from one terrace to the next are massive field stones protruding two feet from the stone walls, ascending at an angle.  The lower steps make excellent benches for four year olds.

 

Tipon feels like it belongs where it is.  It blends seamlessly with the valley, the spring, and the surrounding mountains.  My friend Julie who lives in Colorado but hails originally from the Northeast always complains about the way homes in the Western United States are plopped down on the land without any feeling for the site on which they sit.  In contrast, many old homes in rural New England were usually carefully planned around the shape and feeling of the land on which they were built.  I agree with Julie, but the Inca took the feel of the land to a whole different level.  Tipon is an extension of nature, an embellishment of what was already put in place by the forces of geology.

The Inca made blessings to countless landforms in the diverse territory that they occupied.  I can only imagine how significant a spring might have been to a civilization trying to grow subsistence crops in the high desert environment.  Tipon was undoubtedly a very holy place to the Inca, and I could still feel that energy, nearly five hundred years after this land was wrested from its stewards.