Encyclopedia of the Incas

destination of long-distance pilgrimages. According to Inca tradition, the Sun
had appeared there for the first time, emerging from a cavity at the base of a
rock, called Titicala, which represented the sanctum sanctorum of the oracle.
This sacred rock, considered the dwelling place of the Sun god, was covered in
fine cloth (cumbi) and the hollow whence it emerged was completely sheathed
with gold and silver. Furthermore, the entire sanctuary, which included the
nearby Island of Coati, where the Moon, wife of the Sun, was worshipped,
tangibly expressed the glory and power of the Sun god, with its monumental
buildings in which myriad priests, mamacuna, and a variety of servants lived and
worked as caretakers and to welcome pilgrims.
The great majority of pilgrims who reached the island of Titicaca were not
allowed to approach the rock of Titicala. The faithful could only see it from a
gateway called Intipuncu (gateway of the Sun), located some two hundred steps
from the rock, where they delivered their offerings to the priests. The chronicler
Ramos Gavilán noted three successive portals. Possibly each gateway
represented the limit that pilgrims could reach, according to their rank. At each
doorway, Inca priests waited for the pilgrims to “confess,” interrogating them
about the faults that they and their communities may have committed in the
observance of the Inca state religion and other obligations. Hiding any failures
was considered a grave sin, leading to the most terrible punishments for them
and their people by the all-powerful and omniscient Sun god.
Evidently, oracles such as Titicaca were formidable centers of information
gathering. Through the ritual of confession the pilgrims told oracular priests
what went on in their communities. This information, duly processed and
collated with analogous testimonies and data, lent a high degree of accuracy to
the oracle’s predictions, above all in those of a political nature, increasing
people’s levels of trust in them. In turn, this trustworthiness, conditioning, and
influencing the process of decision making of people and therefore their actions,
increased the possibilities that oracular predictions come true.
It is likely that Titicaca’s three gateways corresponded to the various patios
and thresholds seen in the temple of Pachacamac (the one who animates the
world), the oracle of oracles, located on the central coast of Peru, just south of
Lima. There, as on Titicaca, the Incas invested enormous resources and energy
in remodeling and expanding a preexisting sanctuary, known until then as
Ychsma. The Incas constructed an impressive Sun temple, a complex for the
mamacunas, an enormous plaza with an ushnu (platform and altar) to receive
pilgrims, a palace for the Inca governor, three large perimeter walls, new access