Peru Day 6: Cusco City Tour

Beautiful colonial Cusco. 

Tour of Sacsayhuaman:

This was the capital of the Inca Empire. Located on a steep hill that overlooks the city. Saksaywaman is like a fortress, a walled complex made of large polished dry stone walls, with boulders carefully cut to fit together tightly without mortar. The earliest occupation of the hill top dates back at least a millennium.

Tambomachay or Tampumachay (from Quechua: tanpu mach'ay, resting place) is an archaeological site farther up the mountain from the fortress mentioned above. It consists of a series of aqueducts, canals and waterfalls that run through the terraced rocks. The function of the site is uncertain: it may have served as a military outpost guarding the approaches to Cusco, as a spa resort for the Incan political elite, or both.

We also visited another site close by: Q'enko. It is one of the largest holy places in the Cusco Region. It was based on naturally occurring rock formations. It was believed to be a place where sacrifices and mummification took place.

Tour of Qurikancha (Quechua quri gold, kancha enclosure), originally named Inti Kancha (Quechua for "sun house"). Qurikancha was the most important temple in the Inca Empire, dedicated primarily to Inti, the Sun God. It was one of the most revered temples of the capital city of Cusco:

The walls and floors were once covered in sheets of solid gold, and its adjacent courtyard was filled with golden statues. Spanish reports tell of its opulence that was "fabulous beyond belief". When the Spanish required the Inca to raise a ransom in gold for the life of the leader Atahualpa, most of the gold was collected from Qurikancha.^[4]

The Spanish colonists demolished the temple and used its foundations for a cathedral - Church of Santo Domingo. This is one of numerous sites where the Spanish incorporated Inca stonework into the structure of a colonial building. Major earthquakes severely damaged the church, but the Inca stone walls, built out of huge, tightly-interlocking blocks of stone, still stand due to their sophisticated stone masonry.