Archaeological park of Pumapungo, Cuenca, Ecuador (6 pics)
Exploring ruins in the middle of the city, that's what you can see in the city of Cuenca in Ecuador, while strolling in the archaeological park of Pumapungo.
The ruins can be found just behind the Pumapungo Museum, which is also interesting to visit to learn more about de history of the region.
We can see this Inca style house reconstruction on the site to give us an idea of what the original structures might look like since only the foundations remain to be seen.
Cuenca is a city with an interesting history.
First there was the town of Guapondeleg which was occupied by the Cañari Indians for over a thousand years.
When the Incas arrived in the area, they built the city of Tomebamba to compete with the larger Inca cities of the time.
Unfortunately, an internal civil war destroyed the city not long after.
In 1557, when the Spaniards arrived, they used the remains of stones found there to build the present city of Cuenca.
Luckily the foundations still remain in good condition to give us a good idea of what the city looked like in a more glorious time.
The vegetation has taken over a little, but with a little imagination, we can very well transpose ourselves in the past.
For me it is always impressive to walk around an Inca site and see how strong their structure are and can withstand after all these years with the very little means they had to build them.
Photo taken with a Canon PowerShot A620.
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