Llaqtapata (

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, a Native South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language **So ...

) ''llaqta'' place (village, town, city, country, nation), ''pata'' elevated place / above, at the top / edge, bank (of a river), shore,Lost City of the Incas. by Hiram Bingham. 1952. The Orion Publishing Group Ltd, Orion House. page 164. pronounced 'yakta-pahta', Hispanicized ''Llactapata'') is an archaeological site about east of Machu Picchu. The complex is located in the Cusco Region,

La Convención Province La Convención Province is the largest of thirteen provinces in the Cusco Region in the southern highlands of Peru. As part of the higher-altitude Amazon basin at the foot of the Andes, La Convención is one of three Peruvian provinces that promin ...

, Santa Teresa District, high on a ridge between the Ahobamba and Santa Teresa drainages. It appears to be the site originally reported by Hiram Bingham as having this name. Although the site was little explored by Bingham, it was more extensively explored and mapped by the Thomson and Ziegler expedition of 2003. Bingham first discovered Llaqtapata in 1912. "We found evidence that some Inca chieftain had built his home here and had included in the plan ten or a dozen buildings." Bingham locates the site "on top of a ridge between the valleys of the Aobamba and the Salcantay, about 5,000 feet above the estate of Huaquina." "Here we discovered a number of ruins and two or three modern huts. The Indians said that the place was called Llacta Pata." Bingham did not investigate the ruins thoroughly, however, and they were not studied again for another 70 years. A mid-2003 study of the site conducted by

Hugh Thomson Hugh Thomson (1 June 18607 May 1920) was an Irish people, Irish Illustration, Illustrator born at Coleraine near Derry. He is best known for his pen-and-ink illustrations of works by authors such as Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and J. M. Bar ...

and Gary Ziegler concluded that the location of Llaqtapata along the Inca trail suggested that it was an important rest stop and roadside shrine on the journey to Machu Picchu. This and subsequent investigations have revealed an extensive complex of structures and features related to and connected with Machu Picchu by a continuation of the Inca Trail leading onward into the Vilcabamba. Llaqtapata may have been a member of the network of interrelated administrative and ceremonial sites which supported the regional center at Machu Picchu. It probably played an important astronomical function during the

solstice A solstice is an event that occurs when the Sun appears to reach its most northerly or southerly excursion relative to the celestial equator on the celestial sphere. Two solstices occur annually, around June 21 and December 21. In many countr ...

s and

equinox A solar equinox is a moment in time when the Sun crosses the Earth's equator, which is to say, appears directly above the equator, rather than north or south of the equator. On the day of the equinox, the Sun appears to rise "due east" and se ...

es. (expanded English version)

References and notes

{{Archaeological sites in Peru Inca Archaeological sites in Peru Archaeological sites in Cusco Region it:Llactapata