Ollantaytambo Fortress

Ollantaytambo is two things at once. The town below is the best-preserved example of Inca urban planning still inhabited - the same street grid, the same walls, the same water channels running through them, with people living in structures whose foundations have not changed in five hundred years. Above it a flight of terraces climbs to the Temple of the Sun, where six enormous blocks of rose rhyolite stand fitted together with thin spacer stones, quarried across the valley and hauled up an engineered ramp, and left unfinished when the empire fell. It was here that Manco Inca, in retreat after the failed siege of Cusco, defeated Hernando Pizarro's cavalry in 1537 by flooding the plain below the terraces, one of the few outright indigenous victories of the conquest. The site is also the railhead for Machu Picchu, which means every visitor to the Sacred Valley passes through.

What you actually see

• The terraces - a long stepped climb to the ceremonial platform.
• The six monoliths - rose rhyolite blocks in the unfinished Temple of the Sun.
• The living town - Inca street grid, walls and water channels still in use.
• The 1537 battle - the terraces from which Manco Inca defeated Spanish cavalry.

When to go

April to October. Early morning, before the coaches and before the Machu Picchu trains fill the town. Two to three hours for the site.

Honest expectations

The terrace climb is steep and at 2,800 metres it is harder than it looks. Extremely busy in the middle of the day - the town is a transit hub. Little shade. Accommodation and food prices are high for the region.

Nearby

Urubamba is downstream; the train to Machu Picchu leaves from the station here.