A valley named for its river, the Willka Mayu or sacred river, that became the farmland and country estate of the Inca rulers: Pisac, Chinchero, Moray and Ollantaytambo were built here, and Ollantaytambo later resisted the Spanish.
The valley in five moments
- Before the IncasSalt is already harvestedbefore the 15th century
The spring and the ponds of Maras are in use; the Incas later organise and expand the work.
See Maras →
- Inca periodRoyal estates and sanctuaries15th century
Pisac, Chinchero, Moray and Ollantaytambo are built; the Temple of the Sun is never finished.
See Ollantaytambo →
- 1530sResistance at Ollantaytambo1530s
Manco Inca holds the terraces against the Spanish before retreating to Vilcabamba.
See Ollantaytambo →
- Colonial eraA church on Inca walls16th–19th centuries
The church of Chinchero rises directly on the walls of the royal estate.
See Chinchero →
- TodayPlaces that still work2026
Maras families harvest salt, Chinchero weavers dye with cochineal, Ollantaytambo channels still run.
See Maras →
A river, a name
The Vilcanota runs the length of the valley and lends it its name: to the Incas it was Willka Mayu, the sacred river. Lower and warmer than Cusco, with deep soil and year-round water, the valley was the maize garden of the Inca capital and the place where its rulers built estates and shrines.
What the Incas left
Pisac combined terraces, a town and a religious sector with its Intihuatana above the river. Chinchero, on the high plain, was a royal estate with terraces that still frame the village. Moray turned a natural depression into rings of terraces that most researchers read as an agricultural laboratory. Ollantaytambo was a royal estate and a town laid out on a grid that its residents still live on; its Temple of the Sun was never finished.
The conquest
Manco Inca held Ollantaytambo against the Spanish in the 1530s, then withdrew to Vilcabamba; the terraces you climb were part of that defence. The colonial church at Chinchero was raised directly on the Inca walls of the estate, a pattern repeated across the region.
What is still alive
Families at Maras still harvest salt from the same ponds; weavers at Chinchero still dye with cochineal and plants; Ollantaytambo's canals still run down its Inca streets. The tour is as much about these working places as about ruins. What you see, site by site.
Updated 2 October 2026.
