CUSCO - THE ANCIENT INCA CAPITAL

The Inca Heartland

Whether you spell it Cuzco, Cusco or Qosqo - there's no mistaking where you are from the moment you arrive. Perched high in the Andes, Peru's ancient Inca capital is like nowhere else on earth. It feels like every other doorway leads to a colonial mansion and every other wall is original Inca stonework.

Most importantly of all, though, Cusco is a living city; although there are fabulous museums to visit, the city hasn't been 'mothballed' - the buildings and streets the Incas used are still in use today! It's amazing to know that with every step you take you are walking in the footsteps of the Incas, and that the people you just passed on the corner were speaking Quechua - the language of the Incas. It's an over-used phrase, but let's use it anyway: Cuzco really is 'living history'.

Look at a holiday visiting Cusco

Navel of the World

The fact that many - if not most - people in Cusco and around speak Quechua means that no-one is quite sure whether to spell the name as "Cuzco" or "Cusco". In fact, the name comes from the Quechua "Q'osqo", which means "navel of the world". This is because Cusco was founded as the centre of the Inca Empire, and therefore (as far as the Incas were concerned) the centre of the world.

Just like today, the main square was at the centre of life in Inca Cusco, and when the Spanish arrived this tradition continued. Of course, like all good conquistadors, the Spanish knocked down the Inca temples and palaces around the Plaza and replaced them with colonial mansions and churches. They were clever enough, however, to retain the earthquake-proof Inca lower walls, and just construct their buildings on top...

This means that you get fantastic mixed-heritage sites like the Korikancha - orginally the main Inca temple of the Sun, it was partially-demolished in the colonial period and rebuilt as the church and monastery of Santo Domingo. Interestingly, the colonial-era church has been badly damaged in successive earthquakes whereas the Inca walls remain intact and undisturbed! It also means you can stay in a hotel which is part Spanish hacienda and part Inca palace! Cusco is full of these contradictions and the mix of Andean tradition and colonial grandeur is part of what makes the city so intriguing and why it's such a major part of most holidays in Peru.

Things to see and do on holiday in Cusco

All the major sites in Cusco are either on or within easy walking distance of the Plaza de Armas. You can visit the imposing Cathedral, the dozens of smaller churches and monasteries and the various museums which not only house works of art but many of which are works of art themselves! Of particular note in the city are the various paintings in the cathedral and the Museo de Arte Regional which form the best repository of the 'Cusco School' of art which flourished from the 17th to 19th centuries.

This museum is also special because part of one of its walls consists of the famous 'stone of 12 angles'. This bravura piece of Inca engineering is one massive stone which fits so perfectly in its place that you can't fit so much as a blade of grass between it and the stones around it!

No matter how much time you have in Cusco, you won't get around all the sites you want to see - there are just too many - but we really recommend that, whether you take a guided city tour with us or not, you leave yourself plenty of time for just walking around and drinking everything in. And, speaking of drinking things in: the winding medieval streets are somehow reminiscent of somewhere like York, but at 3,300m above sea level you'll want more than a cup of Yorkshire tea to keep you going! We recommend you try the local maté de coca - tea made from the leaves of the coca plant. It's perfectly legal, very refreshing and really helps you cope with any altitude sickness!

Sacsayhuaman, Kenko and Around

Fantastic though Cusco is, some of the sites that are just out of the city are even better. There are several Inca sites easily accessible from Cusco, either as part of a City Tour or by private means - a shortish walk or shorter cab ride. If you fancy doing something a little different, we can also arrange for you to tour the nearby sites on horseback!

However you end up getting there, the major Inca site to visit is the vast complex of Sacsayhuaman, whose colossal granite walls sit on the summit of a hill just north of Cusco and from where you can look right down on the city. Before you think people are just being a little personal, it really is pronounced "sexy woman", but in actual fact is thought to mean something like "satisfied hawk" in Quechua - although opinions differ as to the exact meaning. Opinion is also divided as to the purpose of these huge fortifications - if indeed that's what they are. The location and size of the structures (some of the individual stones weigh 125 tons) suggest some sort of citadel, but then the site also features a solar calendar and various other more religious ruins. Either way, it is a truly stunning site and definitely merits a visit.

From Sacsayhuaman, it's just a short trip to Kenko (or Q'enqo), which is a set of Inca ruins thought to have been dedicated to the worship of the Puma. This animal was sacred to the Incas (Cusco itself was originally laid out in the shape of a Puma) and there is a huge puma-shaped rock here as well as a set of stairs and entrances to some underground caverns which are decorated with drawings and engravings of Pumas.

Slightly further away from Cusco is Tambomachay, a religious site comprised of four linked terraces with associated buildings dedicated to the cult of water. It is thought to be one of the oldest known Inca sites and is also known as the Baños del Inca or Inca Baths because the site is equipped with two aqueducts, carved into the rock, which carry fresh water into Tambomachay all year round. Although now open to the elements, the surviving foundations indicate that Tambomachay was once a closed-off and secluded place - a welcome place of worship for those just about to reach Cuzco.

There is less ambiguity about the site known as Pukapukara. In Quechua this means "red fortress", and there seems little doubt that this is indeed what the ruins were. Today we can still see the walls, turrets, platforms and passages that would have made it an effective strongpoint. As well as acting as a guard-fort for the road to Cusco, it is believed that Pukapukara was also built to defend the temple complex at Tambomachay.

Cusco: from Inca capital to party capital!

Among its many other claims, Cusco is also the undisputed best night out in Peru. As usual in Peru, nights out start late - often after a good meal in one of the dozens of great restaurants - and are more likely to end in the not-so-early morning than before midnight. There are loads of clubs and bars to visit and, as with everything in Cusco, they're all in and around the Plaza de Armas. As luck would have it (or careful planning...) all the hotels we use are also in and around the Plaza de Armas, so you won't have far to walk, whether you've had a hard day's sightseeing or a few too many Pisco sours!

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