Inca Temple

An inca temple could harbor altars for one god or for many gods; The main god of the incas was the sun and among all the inca divinities, we can find gods and semi gods, each of them with its own set of religion ceremonies; There is two reasons why some semi gods were adopted from other cultures, because the incas were afraid about the power of this semi gods or because the natural fusion of cultures, during the incas empire expansion.

A good example of adopted gods, will be the modify and re constructed inca temple of Pachacamac; This temple was build in the 200 B.C. by the Lima culture, then in 650 A.D. it was re build by the Wary culture; From the 1200 to 1450 A.D. it belong to the Ischma culture and finally the inca people adopt the god of pachacamac from the 1450 to 1532 A.D.; The sacred temple of pachacamac was consider, the most important inca religion pilgrimage destiny during the inca empire.

The thunder was another inca divinity; His name was Illapa, it is not proof yet that the thunder had an inca temple for it self; The illapa was represented by a man with a truncheon in the left hand and a slingshot in the right hand; It was believe that when the illapa shoot a stone and this one hit the ground, a thunder was unleash; The lightning was call golden glow, it was represent by small statues made of textiles, they were always place next to the images of the sun.

The stars were consider a divinity and they have an inca temple practical in every main city, this temples were use to follow the movement of the stars and the sun to create the inca calendar; The stars show images of all animals and it was believe that, thank to the stars all animals could reproduce; Different people with different professions pray to different constellations, it was a religion practice similar to a the catholic tradition of devotion to one catholic saint.

The inca temple for the stars was use as observatory to follow the eclipses of sun and moon; The solar eclipse was believe that announce the death of the inca king, so the inca king was taken to a save place, with no food and no drink, in case that will be poison; The incas believe that the lunar eclipse happen because a cougar and a snake were attacking the moon, so the inca people scream to the moon, make loud noises and make the dogs bark, to help the moon in her fight.

The chancas tribe attack the city of Cuzco and after a fierce battle, the eighth inca king Viracocha lost the city; Few days after, his son the inca prince Yupanqui return to his father Viracocha, holding in his hands the heads of the chancas generals; The inca prince Yupanqui explain how the stones in the battle field became warriors and fight next to him; When the battle was finish the warriors become stones again, the prince pick up the stones and place them in all inca temples around the kingdom; All this stones were consider war divinities.

The divinity call Mamacocha was the mother of the lakes and the ocean; It is a goddess and it is related to water; The most interesting mythology version of the origins of the inca tribe, it is about manco capac and mama ocllo, founders of the empire, they were given life by the goddess mamacocha in the Titicaca lake; Her position in the divinity inca world, it is similar to the virgin maria, mother of Jesus; The mamacocha goddess did not have an inca temple by her self, but she was the most important divinity for the fishermen.

The inca pyramids were another type of temples, they were use for a variety of purposes, like the everyday religious ceremonies; The Mallquis were a strong political and religious divinities, the mallquis were the mummies of death incas kings, they were dress with fine textiles and their faces cover with cotton, the mallquis were consider oracles and they participate as they were alive in parties and ceremonies.

The Pachamama was the divinity of the earth and fertility, it is a goddess and her main inca temple contains a lot of pines made of stone, the stone pines are from 0.50mt up to 1.3mt and they represent the fertility of the inca empire; The pachamama was consider as well, as the mother earth, the mother that will take care of your body when you will be buried, so it was a common practice to spill to the ground the first sip of any drink, to show respect to the mother earth.

The inca temple of the moon was only for women, only the virgin chosen priestesses were able to enter this temples; The moon was consider the most important goddess of all; Young inca women were selected from the entire kingdom and transfer to this temples, they will never return to their homes; The entirely life of this women will be dedicated exclusively to pray to the moon and to perform the ceremonies of the moon all over the inca empire.

And finally the Qoricancha, that was the inca temple of the sun, this temple contains areas for all divinities and practically all the walls were cover with large plaques of solid gold; Documents about the history of the incas, talk about the requirements to enter the Qoricancha, it was require to do not eat at list one day before, be barefoot and carrying a load on your back as a sign of humility; We believe that the experience to enter the Qoricancha temple during the inca time, should be an overwhelming feeling of beauty.

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