Pikillaqta

Pikillaqta was a major Wari center in the Cusco region, built centuries before the rise of the Inca Empire. Its high walls enclose a carefully planned arrangement of compounds, narrow streets and open spaces. The extensive complex formed a provincial outpost of a power centered farther north in the Andes. Though its builders had departed long before Spanish arrival, the ruins remained a conspicuous reminder of an earlier order in the valley.