Cusco

A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983

Cusco sits at 3,300 meters in the Watanay Valley, once home to a giant glacial lake, “Lake Ballivian.” The city center retains numerous pre-Columbian and colonial-era buildings, squares and streets, remarkable for their age. The city of Cusco was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.

Cusco is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the Americas, and in 1933 the “Congress of Americanists” declared it the archaeological capital of the Americas. Once the capital of the Inca Empire, Cusco is the center for Inca studies and Peru's most important tourist destination, visited by more than two million people every year.

The founding myth: Manco Capac and the golden staff

The Incas arrived in Cusco around the 13th century. According to legend, Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo emerged from Lake Titicaca in Puno carrying a golden staff: they were sent to earth by their father, the Sun, to bring culture to a barbaric world. Their mission was to find the best place to found a new city, at the spot where the golden staff would sink into the ground. On their long, slow search (roughly 500 km) they took the road toward the Raya pass, and eventually reached the hill of Huanacaure, where the golden staff finally sank into the earth: that was where the city of Cusco was founded.

A city shaped like a puma

Inca architects laid out Cusco in the shape of a crouching puma, or mountain lion: the Incas considered the puma a deity. In Inca mythology, the duality of the cosmos was hugely important: two separate realms, upper and lower, represented by the condor (the upper world), the puma (the outer earth) and the serpent (the inner earth). The name Pumakurko (puma's backbone) is still in use today, naming one of Cusco's famous streets.

Inca and colonial architecture

In ancient times, Cusco's streets were narrow, generally straight, and paved. The walls of buildings in the city's central area were made of carved stone, while adobe (sun-dried mud brick) was used on the outskirts.

During the Spanish conquest, many Inca temples were destroyed to build Catholic churches or homes for the new rulers. The Spanish used the remaining Inca walls as a foundation for a new city, which today blends Spanish influence with indigenous Inca architecture, clearly visible in the Santa Clara and San Blas neighborhoods.

Temples, ruins and nightlife

Among Cusco's many tourist attractions, churches and temples are among the most interesting: the cathedral on the Plaza de Armas, the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art, and the imposing Qoricancha temple (Temple of the Sun). Through the various earthquakes that have struck Cusco over its long history, the buildings constructed by the Incas have proven more resilient than the colonial ones.

Around the city are several Inca archaeological remains: Qenko, Pucapucara, Tambomachay and Saqsayhuaman. Among these, the most impressive is Saqsayhuaman, a fortress with giant stone walls made of blocks weighing between 90 and 120 tons: to this day, no one knows for certain how these stones were transported there.

Cusco's nightlife is one of the most famous and spectacular scenes in South America: with countless clubs, restaurants and bars, Cusco comes alive at night, and the sights, sounds and experiences of the city make for a lively and captivating atmosphere.