It is located in the province of Cañar, about an hour and 45 minutes from Cuenca. Ingapirca means "Incas stone wall". It is a full and fascinating day's trip from Cuenca to the massive fortifications of Ingapirca rising dramatically above beautiful valleys. On the way to Ingapirca are the towns of Azogues, with its lovely church and Saturday straw market; and Biblian, crowned with an astonishing cathedral cut into the rock.

It is believed today that Ingapirca was both a religious and administrative center, as well as a fortress. The Incas built the complex on top of an old Cañari settlement. The vast archeological complex of the ruins includes a roofless fortification, courtyards, terraces, temples, houses and a "castle", possibly the "Temple of the Sun".

A museum is now open at the site, which contains both archeological and ethnographic displays as well as a scale model of the ruins. Additionally, there are exhibits of ceramics and jewelry of earlier cultures, and scraps of textiles found in a burial ground believed to have been from the Cañari period (500 years before the Incas).

$ 125.63 Price per person minimum 2 pax