03Cities and regions
The Inca capital
Cusco
Cusco is the largest city in the Peruvian Andes, sitting at about 3,400 metres with some 428,000 inhabitants. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Cusco and then of the Inca Empire, and after the Spanish arrived it was refounded in 1534, so many of its houses and churches rise on Inca stone foundations. When a major earthquake struck in 1950, more than a third of the buildings were damaged, but the Inca walls held. The city joined the World Heritage List in 1983 and draws over two million visitors a year as the gateway to the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu. Its heart is the Plaza de Armas, framed by arcades, wooden balconies and the cathedral. Close by stand the walls of Coricancha, the most important temple of the Inca Empire, built of perfectly matched cut stones. Above town, the walls of Sacsayhuamán are made of colossal boulders fitted without mortar at 3,701 metres. Give the city at least two days, and keep the first one gentle while your body adjusts to the altitude.
- About 3,400 m
- Altitude
- 0
- Population
- 1983
- World Heritage
- 0 m
- Sacsayhuamán altitude
Highlights
- CoricanchaThe most important Inca temple, with walls of matched cut stone that became the base of the 17th-century Santo Domingo convent.
- San BlasA hillside quarter where Spanish architecture mixes with Inca walls.