Which archaeological site in Ecuador is the country's most significant Inca ruin? Ingapirca is the answer.
Ingapirca, whose Kichwa name means “Inca wall,” is Ecuador’s largest known Inca archaeological complex. It stands in Cañar Province in the southern Andes, in a region long inhabited by the Cañari people, who called the area Hatun Cañar.
The surviving complex reflects both Cañari and Inca traditions. Its best-known structure is the Temple of the Sun, an elliptical building made with carefully fitted stonework rather than mortar. Its position appears to have been aligned so sunlight entered the temple at significant points in the solar calendar, including the solstices.
Ingapirca was more than a ceremonial site. Archaeologists associate it with storage, military movements and water management, including an underground aqueduct system. It is sometimes confused with Pumapungo, another important Inca-linked site in Ecuador, but Pumapungo is in present-day Cuenca; Ingapirca is the country’s most prominent surviving Inca ruin.