Ollantaytambo walking tour & city guide

The fortress

Huge stone terraces climb the hillside to a temple with massive pink granite blocks. It was the site of an Inca victory over the Spanish.

The town and valley

The town's narrow streets still follow the Inca grid, with water channels running along them. The Sacred Valley has markets, salt pans at Maras and circular terraces at Moray.

A day in Ollantaytambo

Climb the terraces of the fortress for views of the valley. Walk through the old town, where Inca walls and water channels are still in use.

Visit the salt pans of Maras and the circular terraces of Moray.

Good to know

Ollantaytambo is the main train station for Machu Picchu.

It is lower than Cusco, so it is a good place to acclimatize.

A living Inca town

Ollantaytambo is one of the few places where people still live in houses built on Inca foundations, and the town's grid of narrow streets, with water running in stone channels, has barely changed in five centuries. In 1537, the Inca leader Manco Inca defeated a Spanish force here, flooding the plain below the fortress. The unfinished Temple of the Sun, at the top, has six huge pink granite stones fitted together with astonishing precision.

Across the valley, the Pinkuylluna ruins, old Inca storehouses on the mountainside, can be visited for free with a short, steep hike that offers a great view of the town and the fortress. Staying overnight lets you see the town quiet in the evening, after the tour buses leave.