The Inca chief makes a grand appearance at the Warachikuy festivities

Warachikuy is an ancient Inca manhood ritual harking back to the 16th century.

It is one of the most dramatic and colourful annual festivals to take place in the ruins of Sacsayhuaman (pronounced Sexywoman), high above the city of Cusco.

Some 1,500 people are involved in the elaborate 'initiation' dramatisations which kicks off in the morning of the third Sunday in September, drawing thousands of spectators. 

The festivies start harmlessly enough, with young boys in colourful traditional costumes parading around the green field inside the ruins, demonstrating Inca greetings and folkloric dances and engaging in mock battles.  

Later, flag-carrying 'Incas' line the terraces of Sacsayhuaman  as the Inca chief makes a startling appearance, flanked by a parade of elaborately-dressed skeletons and gift-bearing virgins.

The hair-raising demonstrations of 'manhood' can now commence and the Inca chief commentates the  proceedings. 

To the strains of stirring drums and music and the gasps and cheers of the audience, young men prove their strength through elaborate physical tests - jumping through hoops of fire, clambering over precarious wooden structures and tackling their opponents to the burning earth.

Many a 'failure' is fed to the flames and carried off the field in a stretcher, while those boys that are worthy of adulthood and leadership are honoured by the adoring crowd. 

It's an extroardinary spectacle that certainly casts the Peruvian male in a whole new muscle-flexing light.