- published: 26 Oct 2013
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Ingapirca (Kichwa: Inkapirka, "Inca wall") is a town in Cañar Province, Ecuador and the name of an Incan archeological site just outside the town. The town was named after the Inca palace and temple site.
These are the largest known Inca ruins in Ecuador. The most significant building is the temple of the sun, an elliptically shaped building constructed around a large rock. The building is constructed in the Incan way without mortar in most of the complex. The stones were carefully chiseled and fashioned to fit together perfectly. The temple of the sun was positioned so that on the solstices, at exactly the right time of day, sunlight would fall through the center of the doorway of the small chamber at the top of the temple. Most of this chamber has fallen down.
The Incas were not the first inhabitants of Ingapirca. It had long been settled by the Cañari indigenous people, who called it Hatun Cañar.
The castle-complex presents a Inca-Cañari origin. The objective of its construction is uncertain. The complex played an important role on military strategies as a fortress and provisions to troops on north Ecuador. A common criteria of archeologists states that the main objective for its construction was linked to cult of sun.