The sun's golden rays shine with a unusual intensity; at least that's the sensation it gives in Cusco - the magnetic center of the world - on the day of the Inti Raymior Celebration of the Sun.

Perhaps it's simply a hallucination, an optical illusion or a mirage contrived by the profuse intensity of myths and legends or, maybe, an effect of the magic that pervades the physical limit of the stone walls of the Empire's ancient capital and is absorbed in soul and heart of whomever visits it.

And this is because on June 24 it seems as if the city were cloaked in the past and the days of the Tawantinsuyo have returned. Once again, it is Inca who rules; once again, the sun is the Supreme God to whom to pray for abundant harvests and for famine to be vanished.

Prior to the arrival of the Spaniards, the Inti Raymi was the Empire's foremost celebration. It was held during the winter solstice, when the sun is at its furthermost distance from the Equator. The children of the Empire feared that their God, the source of life, would disappear into the vastness of the universe; to prevent this from happening, they implored and begged for him to stay and therefore the Empire would not be overcome by famine.

	Celebration With a past The Ceremony Today