Tipón is a sprawling early fifteenth-century Inca archaeological site that is situated between 3,250 metres (10,660 ft) and 3,960 metres (12,990 ft) above sea level, located 22 kilometres (14 mi) southeast of Cusco near the village of Tipón. It consists of several ruins enclosed by a powerful defensive wall about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) long. The most renowned (and easily accessible) part of the park is the group of precise and right angled monumental terraces irrigated by a network of water canals fed by a monumental fountain channeling water from a natural spring. The site includes ancient residential areas and a remarkable amount of petroglyphs in its upper part.
The irrigation system based on canals, fountains and stonework with water drop structures shows that the Incas had an advanced water related technology and were experienced hydraulic engineers. Since the 1970s the area has been excavated and restored. Works are still ongoing (2021). Most probably the Tipón complex was an imperial Inca estate or at least a sort of feudal estate for Inca elite built in the time of Pachacuti or his son, Topa Inca Yupanqui and it is supposed that also ceremonial activities took place in it. The site may have also been used as a laboratory for agricultural products because of the various micro-climates found within the complex, a reliable round-the-year water supply and the fertile soil. Tipón is considered one of the most important archaeological tours for tourists who visit the Cusco area.
Description
The Tipón complex is located near Oropesa in the Community of Choquepata, Quispicanchi Province, southeast of Cusco, along the Cusco-Puno road. It was divided, by archaeologists, into agricultural and urban sectors (among them Pukara, Intihuatana and Sinkunakancha); ceremonial centers (Cruzmoqo, Intiwatana, fountains); Qullqas -meaning deposit, storehouse- (Iglesia Raqui) and cemeteries. The upper part of the Tipón complex is crossed by three Inca canals that divert the waters of the Pukara river and feed it for the cultivation of the entire complex; one of them flows on top of an intact stone aqueduct. In 1984 Tipón was declared a National Archaeological Park of Peru and in 2006 was put on the List of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks by the American Society of Civil Engineers. It covers an area of 239 hectares (590 acres) and is delimited by two ravines with streams flowing in them, which converge at the foot of the archaeological complex and flow into the left bank of the Huatanay river. Tipón is located in a volcanic area. The material used by the Incas for the construction of the terraces and enclosures was basalt and andesite finely worked or partly worked according to local needs.
Etymology The etymology of the name Tipón is unknown. It is not a Quechua term, but it may be derived from timpuee ("boiling place"), because it could have been "boiling" due to the large number of people or it could have been a place of great concentration of activities in Inca times. In any case, this toponym cannot yet be explained satisfactorily.
History
The reports of the archaeological works conclude that the site was continuously occupied from the Formative stage, by the Marcavalle culture, around 1000 BCE, through the Chanapata (800 BCE), Qotakalli (700 CE), Huari (700 CE to 1200 CE) and Killke (900 to 1200 CE), until the Inca period (13th century to 1572). The artifacts found on site show that Tipón was an important ceremonial, administrative and religious center during Inca times. The Cruzmoqo hill, on top of the Tipón complex, is supposed to have been a very important signal point, communications and observation station along the road to the Vilcanota/Urubamba Sacred Valley. Tipón (whose original name was Muyna or Moyna) was, a very important settlement of the pre-Inca tribe of the Pinagua, finally becoming an Inca llaqta (administrative settlement). The Pinaguas may have been part of the Ayarmaca kingdom whose uprising against the Inca rule is known to have occurred during the reigns of Inca Roca and Viracocha Inca, having been definitively subdued by Pachacuti, in the middle of the 15th century. According to the historian Víctor Angles Vargas interpreting a passage from the chronicle of the Comentarios Reales de los Incas by Garcilaso de la Vega, Tipón was built by Viracocha Inca as a residence and refuge for his father Yawar Waqaq, who was overthrown for escaping during a rebellion of the Chankas. Garcilaso mentions that, by mutual agreement, in order to avoid a civil war, father and son «...drew up a royal house, between the narrow area of Muyna and Quespicancha, in a pleasant place … with all the gifts and delights that could be imagined». Nevertheless, subsequent studies and later interpretations have made it clear that it was the elder Viracocha who fled before the arrival of the Chankas, not to this place but to the Sacred Valley while confirming a close relationship of Yawar Waqaq with the Tipón site. The name Tipón appears for the first time in the will of Doña Tomasina de la Vega, one of the first owners of the Quispicanchi estate in the 16th century and widow of a Don Griego, mentioning the «lands of Tipón and Guaypar» and of «some lands within old enclosures».
Archaeological Park
Tipon is hydrologically remarkable because of the combined use of both surface water and groundwater in a balanced, logical manner, even when measured by modern engineering standards. While Tipon's water works are much different than those at Machu Picchu, the similarity of technical principles employed at the two sites demonstrates that common technology transfer took place between these two separated locations. For instance, stone-lined canals, vertical drains or drops, and spring water collection headworks at both locations show similar technology, even though details differ. Land stewardship at both locations is evident. The engineers at both Machu Picchu and Tipon exhibited knowledge of the relationships between hydraulic slope, canal cross sectional area, hydraulic roughness, and resulting flow capacity. Tipon's ceremonial fountain shares fundamental similarities with the numerous fountains of Machu Picchu and Wiñay Wayna. The main areas of interest within the Tipón archaeological park are the following.
Terraces
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