Cusco
Cusco is a beautiful, laid back, city with a good mix of colonial buildings set among Inca ruins. It is some 2 miles up in the Andes, so no rushing about unless you want to get out of breath quickly.
It was the Inca capital prior to the conquest by the Spanish Conquistadores in the 16th century.
Koricancha was the most important temple in the Inca Empire. The walls were once covered in sheets of gold and the adjacent courtyard was filled with golden statues. The church of Santo Domingo was built over the Inca remains of the Golden Palace and Sun Temple, Koricancha, of which you can see part of its curved wall in this photo below. There was so much gold to loot that it took the The Spanish Conquistadors several months just to strip the gold sheets off the walls and ship it all back to Spain.
The central courtyard in Santo Domingo is one of the largest of its kind in Peru. Despite all the tourists, a very peaceful space.
Our guide, Helga, describing some of the fabulous gold treasures that the Incas had in Koricancha.
In Cusco many modern civic buildings – not just churches – were built on Incan foundations, for protection against the frequent earthquakes.
Sue, Di and Jo standing by an example in a small alleyway which is technically one of the most impressive examples of the Incan Stonemason’s art, the Stone of 12 Angles. Each of the main stones in this wall weighs several tons, so to get them to all fit together perfectly was quite a feat.
Cusco boasts many grand old colonial buildings.
I noticed with the other cities we visited in Peru, not just Cusco, this type of political advertising carved out on the adjoining mountains. The Nazca lines are one thing, but this sort of graffiti is an eyesore!
Confusingly, the main square of most Peruvian cities is called Plaza de Armas and true to form the main Cathedral always dominates one side of the square, as here.
On one evening some of us went to a flute and organ concert in the Cathedral. Great acoustics in a divine setting.
In one corner of Plaza de Armas, some locals were very interested in my wellbeing, as I was propositioned for a massage on several occasions!
On the outskirts of Cusco is Sacsayhuaman. It is a very large complex, likely to have been an Incan religious centre. It comprises three long, massive, staggered walls, overlooking a ceremonial ground. In Inca Mythology, the Condor ruled over the heavens, the Puma over the earth and the Snake was associated with the underworld. If you look at an old Inca map of Cusco, the city was roughly in the shape of a Puma, with Sacsayhuaman forming the head. Following on with this idea, the zigzag walls of Sacsayhuaman are considered to be the Puma’s teeth.
Here I am then standing by one of its molars! True to the Inca workmanship, you can’t squeeze a toothpick between some of these enormous stones.
A Tambo was an Incan post-house for important travellers. This one, Tambo Machay may also have been a shrine for worshipping water as it was built round a natural spring so as to channel the water into fountains at different levels.
