Door to enclosure of Sun temple at Machu Picchu, Peru.
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Image courtesy of Corel Corporation.
Inti
Inti was considered the Sun god and the ancestor of the Incas. Inca people were living in South America in the ancient Peru. In the remains of the city of Machu Picchu, it is possible to see a shadow clock which describes the course of the Sun personified by Inti.
Inti and his wife Pachamama, the Earth goddess, were regarded as benevolent deities. According to an ancient Inca myth, Inti taught his son Manco Capac and his daughter Mama Ocollo the arts of civilization and sent them to the Earth to instruct mankind about what they had learned.
Inti ordered his children to build the Inca capital where the tupayauri fell to the ground. The tupayauri was a divine golden wedge. Manco probed the ground with the wedge, and at one point threw it into the ground. The tupayauri sank into the ground, and so the search for a site was over. Incas believed this happened in the city of Cuzco, which has been founded by the Ayar.
Inti is celebrated even today in Peru during the Festival of Inti Raimi in Cuzco where an Inca drama related to the Sun god is re-enacted.
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