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The literature generally assumes that the Horca del Inca was an Inka site, but was this really so? Trimborn (1967:16) reports that there were “none or very few Inca potsherds” (translation by the author)9 in the areas of the Horca del Inca or Intinkala. Although Intinkala should be attributed to the Inka mainly because of the rock sculptures in the Cusco style, the situation with the Horca del Inca is different. Archaeological sites with natural stone pillars supporting a man-made lintel do not exist in the Cusco region, and two other Bolivian examples illustrated by Trimborn strongly suggest that this type of monument followed a local and probably pre-Inka tradition. He understands Horca monuments as predecessors of the Inka “intiwatana” stones and assigns them to the local Aymara culture, which was also the opinion of Henri Beuchat (cited in Trimborn 1967:16). Despite the possible pre-Inka origin of the Horca del Inca, I would argue that the Inka continued to use it to determine the summer solstice and perhaps as a place of punishment (see above). Furthermore, the Inka use of the Horca del Inca highlights the importance of the sun cult in Inka ideology. Constructing cultural landscapes which linked the local as the point of human observation and interaction with the horizon line, as marked by the positions of the sun, was one calculated state strategy to integrate the empire into an ideational landscape system (this will be discussed below). Along the pilgrimage route at Lake Titicaca, there were thus several shrines dedicated to the observation and worship of the sun. The main Sanctuary on the Island of the Sun was one among many, though it certainly held the most innate power and marked the culmination of the pilgrimage route. Ramos Gavilan speaks of another shrine of the sun in the town of Copacabana (Ramos Gavilan 1988:171–172 [1621:Bk.1, Ch.28]. It is very difficult to match this important shrine with a recorded archaeological site. Since Gavilan indicates that it was situated “where today the convent stands,” it is likely that its foundations lie underneath the Church of the Virgin of Copacabana. This would be consistent with the general Christian Catholic practice of building churches on top of pagan sanctuaries.10 ...