Ingapirca, Cañar, Ecuador
Ingapirca
Late 15th century (Inca ashlar on a Cañari place)
At Ingapirca the Temple of the Sun is an oval of cushioned blocks, about 37 metres long, with two rooms that face the sunrise and the sunset. The hill under it was Cañari, and the fitted face is the part read as Inca.
Why this is extraordinary
The finest wall at Ingapirca is an oval, not the rectangle of most Inca halls. Ashlar, here, means a squared facing block. The published platform is 37.1 metres on the long axis and 12.35 metres on the short, and about 4 metres high, and the long axis lies nearly east to west. On the platform, two rooms share a dividing wall and do not open into each other. One looks toward sunrise, the other toward sunset, and trapezoidal niches, wider at the sill than at the top, are cut in the walls. The national heritage institute identifies the stone as green andesite and volcanic rock.
A 1984 study of the light did not find a single famous day. Each room has two stretches of light and two of shadow in the year, each stretch about 50 to 52 days. The western room's light falls between the March and September equinoxes, so the June solstice sits inside that season. The eastern room's light falls between September and March, so the December solstice sits inside it. Near the equinoxes the sun passes from one room to the other. Equinox, here, is the day when day and night are nearly equal, and solstice is the day the sun's rising point stops and turns back. A separate group, Pilaloma, has an axis aimed at sunset on the June solstice. The heritage institute marks 20 or 21 June, the festival of Inti Raymi, as the day the light takes the place, and the observation can be repeated. The 1984 study that supplies those seasons is frank about the instruments it did not have. The observer had none. He could not check the plans against geographic north, he could not measure the height of the horizon, and he therefore treated the dates as approximate by some days. He withheld the moon and the stars until exact angles exist. One detail sheet of Pilaloma disagreed with the general plan by as much as 20 degrees, and he blamed a copyist. The two chambers do face opposite ways, and an approximate season of light can still be true when the degrees are soft. An azimuth that was not shot on the ground is not yet a bearing. A second crew, with an instrument and a checked north, is what would turn the seasons into a survey.
The same hill was Cañari before it was imperial. Radiocarbon from Pilaloma falls between 990 and 1400, read in that report as the Cañari occupation. The Inca buildings are placed in the second half of the fifteenth century. The report suggests the monumental part may have been destroyed or abandoned in the civil war between Atahualpa and Huascar, before the Spanish arrival. The institute also names a Cañari presence from about 500 CE, a wider cultural date than the samples on this hill. The rougher walls are still there, and the fitted oval is the later face. A reading that the fine work itself is older than the empire is the claim this room keeps open.
What this changes: if the oval is Inca work on a Cañari sanctuary, Ecuador's best-fitted wall is imperial masonry adapted to an older holy place, kin to the fitted walls at Sacsayhuamán and Ollantaytambo. If the oval is older than that campaign, the empire finished a curve it did not design, and the light in the two rooms may be an inheritance.
Why it matters
Two masonries on one ridge are a sequence only if the fine curve is the later one. The light in the two rooms is a second claim, and it can be true of an Inca temple or of an older one. The stones do not, by themselves, say which.
The complex covers about four hectares above the Cañar valley. The heritage institute calls it a religious, political, and administrative centre on the Qhapaq Ñan, the Inca road, after the empire took a place the Cañari already held. The oval was cut from a rock that stood on the edge of the ravine, then faced with courses of worked blocks. A ramp rises to a trapezoidal door, and inside, the two chambers are separated by a wall with niches. The 1984 report, quoting the excavation, says the chambers are good Inca masonry and that the curved retaining wall is the finer work, with larger stones and a more careful fit. The face of that wall is what the photographs show.
Photo tour
6 photographs, unedited. On a phone, swipe the row. Choose one to look closely.
What is still unexplained
These sit beside the consensus account, with the same visual weight. None of them is marked solved.
Location and dating
- Location
- Ingapirca, Cañar province, on the ridge above the Hatun Cañar valley. The pin is the Temple of the Sun.
- Period label
- Current consensus — open to revision Current consensus — open to revision. Radiocarbon from Pilaloma, 990 to 1400, is read as the Cañari occupation of this hill. Inca buildings fall in the second half of the fifteenth century, and the institute also names Cañari culture from about 500 CE, a wider date than these samples. The report suggests the monumental part may have fallen in the war between Atahualpa and Huascar.
- How this dating was done
- Radiocarbon from Pilaloma frames the pre-imperial occupation. The Inca date is the second half of the fifteenth century, read with the typology of cushioned ashlar, trapezoidal doors, and niches. The light is archaeoastronomy, an observation of the sun on the rooms, and it does not by itself date the wall.
- What could change it
- A sample sealed under the oval's foundation, distinct from the Pilaloma dates, would say whether the fitted face and the Cañari sector are one century or two. A second log of the light seasons would test the 1984 account.
What is actually there
- The oval platform measures about 37.1 by 12.35 metres, and about 4 metres high.
- Two chambers face opposite ways and do not connect.
- The long axis lies nearly east to west.
- The stone is described as green andesite and volcanic rock.
- The curved retaining wall is described as finer than the chambers on top of it.
- Cañari structures, including a marked huanca, stand on the same ridge.
Open questions
| Question | Status |
|---|---|
| Does anything sealed under the oval fall before the late fifteenth century? | Open |
| Does the June light on the western niches repeat for a second crew? | Open |
The current narrative
Where publication stands today. It is the best-supported reading, and it is open to revision. It is not a verdict.
The current narrative — open to revision
The current narrative
Inca masons of the late fifteenth century faced a Cañari outcrop with cushioned ashlar and built the double chamber as a sun temple. The rougher walls are the earlier Cañari work, left beside the new oval. The light seasons belong to that imperial design.
What supports this
- Cushioned courses, trapezoidal doors, and niches match imperial masonry elsewhere in the Andes.
- Radiocarbon and the historical advance of the empire put the Inca complexes in the second half of the fifteenth century.
- The Cañari sector is visibly a different build, on the same hill.
What pushes back
- A date sealed under the oval itself has not separated the facing from the outcrop it covers.
- The ellipse is unusual in the Inca corpus, so the plan is not a copy of a Cuzco rectangle.
What would settle it
This is the published reading, and it fits the two masonries a visitor can see. It moves if the foundation of the oval is older than the imperial century.
Emerging narratives
Other published readings. Each may be right. None is adopted here unless the evidence carries it.
An emerging narrative
The fine curve is the older work
The fitted oval was already the sanctuary, and the empire occupied, repaired, or claimed it. The Cañari, or a still earlier hand, would then be the masons of the best wall, and the Inca contribution would be the rougher additions and the historical name.
What supports this
- The hill was sacred and built on for centuries before the empire arrived.
- An oval is hard to explain as a routine imperial plan.
What pushes back
- The fine masonry is the part that matches Inca canons, and the rough masonry is the part that matches the earlier sector.
- Splitting the oval off from the imperial campaign needs a foundation date the published samples have not given it.
What would settle it
It is the fair alternative, because builders-on-older-ruins is already true of the hill as a whole. It is not yet true of the fitted face, and the test is under the oval, not in the style of the rough walls.
Should the current view be reevaluated?
Open to revision
Keep the oval with the late fifteenth century, because the masonry and the history point there, and keep the Cañari hill as the older ground. Open, because the oval's own foundation is not the sample that has been dated, and the solstice log is one study.
What drives this
- Two masonries on one ridge, and a measured oval of 37.1 by 12.35 metres.
- Published light seasons of about 50 to 52 days, called approximate, and a Pilaloma sheet off the plan by as much as 20 degrees.
- Cañari structures that are real and rougher.
This is the museum’s own weighing of the evidence. It is not a visitor vote, and it is separate from the slider.
Weigh it yourself
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If the contested reading is right
What would follow if a reading that is not the consensus turned out to be true, and what could settle it. This explains the stakes. It does not adopt the reading.
The fitted oval is older than the Inca campaign
The best wall in Ecuador would leave the imperial century, and the solstice rooms would be an older instrument the empire inherited. The rough Cañari walls would no longer be the "before" of this particular curve.
Why it is still worth a test
Date a deposit sealed by the oval's lowest course, and compare that course's stone with the blocks in the Cañari sector.
Sources
- Complejo Arqueológico Ingapirca National Institute of Cultural Heritage. Cañari presence from about 500 CE, the oval temple, and the Inca road.
- Informe acerca de las investigaciones arqueoastronómicas en el área central de Ingapirca Revista Española de Antropología Americana, 1984. The platform dimensions, the Pilaloma dates, and the light seasons.
- Qhapaq Ñan, Andean Road System UNESCO World Heritage Centre. The road network the institute ties this complex to.
Image credits
- The Temple of the Sun from the northeast. The platform is an oval of about 37.1 by 12.35 metres, and about 4 metres high, and the gable on top is the double chamber. . Ymblanter, CC BY-SA 4.0. Shown unedited.
- The oval from the west, and lower walls of a rougher build in front of it. Two kinds of masonry share the ridge. . Ymblanter, CC BY-SA 4.0. Shown unedited.
- Inside a chamber, trapezoidal niches break the courses, and the gable is the end wall of the room that faces one horizon. . Cayambe, CC BY-SA 3.0. Shown unedited.
- At the gate, the joints are tight, and one block stands proud of the jamb. The photograph shows the projection, and it does not say whether the mason meant to dress it off. . Ymblanter, CC BY-SA 4.0. Shown unedited.
- The lower buildings, seen from the temple. Their stones are smaller and less dressed than the oval, and the complex is a town of walls, not one curve. . Ymblanter, CC BY-SA 4.0. Shown unedited.
- A standing stone marked on site as a Cañari huanca. The thatched house is a reconstruction, and the older presence is the stone and the rough walls, not the new roof. . Cayambe, CC BY-SA 3.0. Shown unedited.