With this huge Qhapaq Nan serial nomination, the Andean countries seem to have clustered all Inca sites of any importance. I visited the area in 2011 and 2017, and besides Cuzco/Tiwanaku/Quebrada de Humahuaca which are already WHS in their own right, I visited some of the "lesser" sites too.

Pachacamac is an easy half-day trip out of Lima. I took one of the dozens of minibusses that leave all the time from Avenida Grau. It dropped me off right at the site's entrance. There's a little museum on-site, displaying some pretty Wari ceramics and also textile that has survived the ages due to the extremely dry climate here.

Its location indeed is one of the most remarkable things about Pachacamac - it's out there in the desert, within sight of the sea. The site is totally covered in sand. Archeologists are only slowly making their way to the many temples and other features below. Most of it is off-limits to visitors, though the Temple of the Sun can be climbed and other parts like the North-South Street have explanatory boards. You can do a full circuit walk of the large terrain in about an hour (if you have a car, you can also drive).

Pachacamac was a ceremonial and pilgrimage site between 200 and 1535. It was used by different civilizations: the Lima, the Wari, the Ichma, and the Inca. Its most distinguishing fact is that it predominantly is a Wari site, a culture that is not represented on the List yet. But it's not the best place to see Wari remains - Pachacamac never was a central site for them, and the Inca added and altered a lot.

In Ecuador in 2017 I visited another one of the associated sites, Ingapirca. The Inca started to expand their empire northwards into Ecuador from Peru only from 1463. They met with a lot of resistance, notably from the Cañari people who were local to the area around Cuenca. The interesting feature of Ingapirca is that it is a mixed Cañari – Inca site. The Inca Túpac Yupanqui ended up marrying a Cañari princess, and the two groups reputedly lived together peacefully afterward although they kept their own customs.

The guides that accompany visitors to the archaeological site identify themselves as indigenous Cañari, and they are happy to point out especially these remains. The Cañari worshipped the moon, and the remains of their Temple of the Moon cover the first plateau at the site. There’s an interesting communal tomb in front of it, with a vertical monolith on top. Here a woman of high social class was buried together with 10 other men and women who – according to the guide – were sacrificed alive. A bit further into the complex, a rock with holes in it represents a Cañari “lunar calendar”. The different holes were filled with water to catch the reflections of the moon for each moon month of the year.

Ingapirca is also the largest known Inca ruin site in Ecuador. The most significant remaining of that period is the Temple of the Sun, an elliptically shaped building constructed around a large rock. The typical Inca construction style, that can be seen in the many sites around Peru, is also clearly distinguishable here at Ingapirca. Because of the type of local stones that they used, the temple has an attractive greenish hue.

There’s a stretch of Inca road next to the Temples of the Moon and the Sun that was identified by our guide as ‘Qhapaq Nan’ and part of the UNESCO World Heritage. It is maybe 50 meters long and does not seem to go anywhere in particular. The Inca incorporated their newly won territories in their road network often as much as a symbol of their strength, as well as a means for communication and transportation.