Popular Tours in Cusco
Machu Picchu
Sacred Valley
City Tour
Learn about the best single destinations in Cusco
For many visitors to Peru and even South America, a visit to the Inca city of Machu Picchu is the long-anticipated high point of their trip. In a spectacular location, it’s the best-known archaeological site on the continent.
This awe-inspiring ancient city was never revealed to the conquering Spaniards and was virtually forgotten until the early part of the 20th century. Now, in the high season from late May until early September, 2500 people arrive daily. Despite this great tourist influx, the site manages to retain an air of grandeur and mystery, and is a must for all visitors to Peru.
Tucked under the tawny skirts of formidable foothills, the beautiful Río Urubamba Valley, known as El Valle Sagrado (The Sacred Valley), is about 15 km north of Cuzco as the condor flies, via a narrow road of hairpin turns. Long the home of attractive colonial towns and isolated weaving villages, in recent years it has become a destination in its own right.
Star attractions are the markets and the lofty Inca citadels of Pisac and Ollantaytambo, but the valley is also packed with other Inca sites. Trekking routes are deservedly gaining in popularity. Adrenaline activities range from rafting to rock climbing.
If you visit only one site in Cuzco, make it these Inca ruins. Qorikancha was once the richest temple in the Inca empire; all that remains today is the masterful stonework.
The temple was built in the mid-15th century during the reign of the 10th inca (king), Túpac Yupanqui. Today it belongs to the Dominicans and forms the base of the colonial church and convent of Santo Domingo. Its site is a bizarre combination of Inca an colonial architecture, topped with a roof of glass and metal.
In Inca times, Qorikancha (Quechua for ‘Golden Courtyard’) was literally covered with gold. The temple walls were lined with some 700 solid-gold sheets, each weighing about 2kg. There were lifesized gold and silver replicas of corn, which were ceremonially ‘planted’ in agricultural rituals. Also reported were solid-gold treasures such as altars, llamas and babies, as well as a replica of the sun, which was lost. But within months of the arrival of the first conquistadors, this incredible wealth had all been looted and melted down.
This immense ruin of both religious and military significance is 2km from Cuzco. The long Quechua name means ‘Satisfied Falcon,’ though tourists will inevitably remember it by the mnemonic ‘sexy woman.’
Sacsaywamán feels huge, but only about 20% of the original structure remains. Soon after the conquest, the Spaniards tore down many walls and used the blocks to build their own houses, leaving the largest and most impressive rocks, especially the main battlements.
A squatter on the site of Viracocha Inca’s palace, the cathedral was built using blocks pilfered from the nearby Inca site of Sacsaywamán. Its construction started in 1559 and took almost a century. It is joined by Iglesia del Triunfo (1536) to its right and Iglesia de Jesús María (1733) to the left.
According to legend, in the 12th century, the first inca (king), Manco Cápac, was ordered by the ancestral sun god Inti to find the spot where he could plunge a golden rod into the ground until it disappeared. At this spot – deemed the navel of the earth (qosq’o in the Quechua language) – he founded Cuzco, the city that would become the thriving capital of the Americas’ greatest empire.
INNOVA PERU TOURS is a local tour operator, managed by Peruvian people in order to creating great experiences in Cusco, organizing tours to Machu Picchu, Cusco, Lima, Puno and some new incorporated destinations.
CHS Alternativo is a specialized organization with 16 years of work promoting the protection of human rights, in particular of women, children and adolescents that are in a situation of vulnerability due to human trafficking, sexual exploitation, and forced labor. >>Spanish version<<
<< Information about ECPAT PERU >> (English version)
