Peru

PERU | Monday, 24 November 2014 | Views [578] | View Smaller Image

Hundreds of colorful onlookers watch the equally colorfully clad participants from the tops of the Saqsayhuaman fortress. Thousands of people come from all over the world every year to watch this performance. Even though it is now a pageant, for those chosen to participate in the reenacting, it's a great honor and a source of cultural pride, a reminder of the importance that the sun had for their Incan ancestors.

After starting at Qorikancha, the temple of the sun, nearly five hundred processioners parade around the Plaza de Armas, dancing, singing and throwing flowers. After a reading of the sacred coca leaf to divine the future of the empire, the throng winds their way up to the fortress, Saqsayhuaman, for the final ceremony.

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An actress dressed in the traditional garb of one of the realms of Tawantinsuyu (the Incan Empire) watches the High Priest perform a final, re-enacted ritual sacrifice of a white alpaca (basically a giant puppet with fake guts inside) and read the omens contained within its

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Peru

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