Huaca de Chena, also known as the Chena Pukara, is an Inca site on Chena Mountain, in the basin of San Bernardo, at the edge of the Calera de Tango and Maipo Province communes in Chile. Tala Canta Ilabe was the last Inca who celebrated Inti Raymi in its Ushnu.
Etymology
The word Chena means puma in estrous cycle in the Quechuan language.
History
The site was constructed by the Incas of the Qullasuyu. The Chena Mountain fortress or pucará is located at Cucará Point, at the opening for Catemito Road. In 1976, archeologist Rubén Stehberg published the report "Chena's Fortress and its relation with the Inca occupation of central Chile". The topographic survey was realized by engineer Hans Niemeyer.
Southern sanctuary
In the present day, despite the controversy concerning its occupation by the Incas in pre-Columbian times, the Pucará de Chena is recognized as the southernmost Inca sanctuary.
Architecture
This fortress possesses a set of nine enclosures situated at the hill's summit and two surrounding walls, which were initially interpreted as defensive structures. The first attempt at a new interpretation of their function was published in 1991. It points out that the perimeter of the walls of the pucará suggests the form of an animal, possibly a feline, and concludes that these were not defensive walls, rather a representation of the three areas of the Inca cosmovision.
The form of a feline, the same as Cuzco
This form, similar to that of an animal (unique in Chile), is akin to the figure of a puma which was also represented in the layout of the cardinal city of Inca Empire, Cusco.
Sarmiento de Gamboa indicated that the city's builder had conceived it in the form of a puma. Fernando and Edgardo Elorrieta describe a great quantity of Inca buildings located in the sacred valley as resembling animal forms, some of them related to the constellations that were seen in the night sky. They also describe the associations of these buildings with astronomy.
The hind end of this feline presents apertures for doors, corridors and separations between walls, which allow for the passage of the first ray of sun on the solstice and the equinox. The first ray of sun on the winter solstice (June 21) moves through four doors in one direction. During the dawn on the summer solstice (December 21), months later, the last ray of sun follows the path in the opposite direction.
The Huaca de Chena
A huaca (Quechuan Wak'a) is a sacred place, a space of ritual use. The previous descriptions seem to indicate that Chena's Pucará was, and is, a huaca.
Reasons why it is a huaca and not a pucará
The reasons that support this place as a ceremonial and not a military compound:
Weapons were not found during the excavations; water is located 2,5 km away; housing accommodates 6 people, insufficient for the garrison that is supposed to have defended the extensive perimeter walls; The pucará has a zoomorphic shape (it looks like a "puma""), and this is characteristic of Inca ceremonial centers; When observed, the pucará consists of three separate spaces (the first perimeter wall, the second perimeter wall and the central enclosures), which can be interpreted as the typical "Inca Tripartición of Pachacuti Yamqui" (A lower zone, a terrestrial zone and a celestial zone); Finally, in the primary enclosure it is possible to observe the existence of one Ushnu (place of observation). Curiously, it is possible to trace a perfectly straight line between Chena's ushnu and the place where the Sun sets on every winter solstice (on La Costa Mountain chain).
The Huaca de Chena Astronomical Observatory
The Incas had developed an astronomy based on the rising and setting of Inti (the Sun), Quilla (the Moon) and certain planets and stars, in particular, Chasca (Venus) and Collca (the Pleiades). In 1996, a new article published in an engineering magazine offered a new interpretation, according to which the pucara might be a ritual site and an astronomical observatory, not a fortress. The abundant quantity of specialized literature indicates that the Inca astronomers realized highly precise observations and were constructing observatories throughout the territory that they occupied. These observatories were necessary for the elaboration of calendars with agricultural, religious, civil purposes, etc. Boccas, explores this line of analysis in depth.