Sillustani
Just a few miles north of Puno lies the dramatic scenery
of Sillustani, a hilly peninsula boldly protruding into a
startingly beautiful lagoon, surrounded by towering mountains.
Here is where the Colla tribe buried their deceased elite
in dozens of distinctive "funerary towers", creating
an eerie, other-worldly landscape. The Collas were a leading
pre-Inca culture, which were subsumed by the Incan strategy
of "embrace and extend", becoming one of the four
major organizational units making up the Incan empire.
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One of the best-preserved towers. Visible is the interior
stone work of the actual vessel which contained the
mummies, typically three -- the departed leader himself,
his wife, killed to accompany her husband on his supposed
journey to the afterworld, and, we are told, a child
picked at random and killed to fill out the mummified
nuclear family.
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Several funerary towers viewed from a distance.
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A funerary tower stands proudly against the dramatic
background of the lagoon into which juts the peninsula
on which the towers were built. Visible in the distance
is an island floating dreamily in the center of the
lagoon.
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This graphic structure apparently has some relationship
to fertility worship or rites. In addition, the site
also contains a pair of Incan temples, celebrating the
sun and the moon, demonstrating the Incan approach or
accepting and building on the religious sites of the
tribes which they embraced into their empire.
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Another view of the fertility structure, together with
a phallic object completing the overall sculpture.
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