Battle of Ollantaytambo

1537 CE.

Shown on the map at -13.258°, -72.263°.

The Battle of Ollantaytambo (Spanish: Batalla de Ollantaytambo, IPA: [baˈtaʎa ðe oʎantajˈtambo]) took place in January 1537, between the forces of Inca emperor Manco Inca and a Spanish expedition led by Hernando Pizarro during the Spanish conquest of Peru. A former ally of the Spaniards, Manco Inca rebelled in May 1536, and besieged a Spanish garrison in the city of Cusco. To end the stand-off, the besieged mounted a raid against the emperor's headquarters in the town of Ollantaytambo. The expedition, commanded by Hernando Pizarro, included 100 Spaniards and some 30,000 Indian auxiliaries against an Inca army of more than 20,000. There is some controversy over the actual location of the battle; according to some, it took place in the town itself, while Jean-Pierre Protzen and John Hemming argue that the nearby plain of Mascabamba better matches the descriptions of the encounter. In any case, the Inca army managed to defend against the Spanish forces from a set of high terraces and flooded their position by channeling water from the Urubamba River, which greatly hindered the Spanish cavalry. Severely pressed and unable to advance, the Spaniards withdrew by night to Cusco.

Text from the Wikipedia article Battle of Ollantaytambo, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

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