The temple of Qoricancha, also called koricancha or Temple of the Sun, is the most important temple of the Inca Empire. It was mainly dedicated to the god Inti, the Sun god, and is located in the city of Cusco, the capital of Tahuantinsuyo.
It was one of the most famous, revered and respected temples in the city of Cusco, in Peru.
The enclosure of gold, as it was known, was a sacred place where worship was rendered to the highest Inca god: the Inti (Sun), so they could only enter on an empty stomach, barefoot and with a load on their back as a sign of humility, according to the senior priest Willaq Umu indicated.
The façade was a beautiful wall made of the finest stonework, decorated only with a fine sheet of pure gold one palm high, three meters from the ground, and a roof of fine and delicately cut straw.
In one of the blocks of the second row there are three holes that could have been used to evacuate the rainwater from the interior patio, or as an outlet for the chicha that was offered as an offering. According to the experiments of Augusto León Barandiarán, if you hit inside the holes you can hear the musical notes «re», «la» and «mi».
The stones that make up the temple have a slight padding on the sides, which expresses the sober aesthetics of the construction in the Inca Empire.
Formerly there was no triangular atrium that serves as the entrance to the colonial temple and the wall turned at right angles towards Ahuacpinta Street (Awaq Pinta), which still preserves a section of the original wall almost sixty meters long. On the opposite side of this street, the wall becomes curved by turning more than 90 degrees, and continues with a smooth curve that was cut during the construction of the temple. The Qurikancha wall crowned a system of platforms that went down to the river.
Many books and historians point out that this place was more sanctified or revered, because when the Spanish built a temple or convent, they made this place a privileged place for offerings.
Within the three temples that still exist, you can see a part of the wall that is still plastered and painted. The Spanish, in their desire not to discover the Inca constructions, covered the walls with plaster, painted and installed images of saints. and other things to cover all Inca traces.
But due to natural causes, such as the earthquake that hit Cusco, the walls were cracked and this is how the discoveries of the Inca constructions that are today exhibited inside the church are produced.