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Wilkawain , 8km from Huaraz, can be reached from the centre of the city by following Avenida Centenario downhill from Avenida Fitzcarral, then turning right up a track (just about suitable for cars) a few hundred metres beyond the Gran Hotel Huascaran. From here, it's about an hour's stroll, winding slowly up past several small hamlets, to the signposted ruins. If there are four or five of you, a taxi there and back shouldn't come to more than about $3 each. The temple is an unusual two-storey construction, with a few small houses around it, set against the edge of a great bluff. With a torch you can check out some of its inner chambers, where you'll see ramps, ventilation shafts, and the stone nails that hold it all together. Most of the rooms, however, are still inaccessible, filled with the rubble and debris of at least a thousand years. The temple base is only about 11m by 16m, sloping up to large slanted roof slabs, long since covered with earth and rocks to form an irregular domed top. The construction is a small replica of the Castillo at Chavin de Huantar, with four superimposed platforms and stairways, and a projecting course of stones near the apex, with a recessed one below it. There was once a row of cats' heads beneath this, which is a typical design of the Huari-Tiahuanucu culture that spread up here from the coast some time between 600 and 1000 AD.
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