Named as the Archaeological Capital of America, amazed by its beauty and unique personality in contrast and blend harmoniously with the native Western, the historical and current through the merger of two cultures, called by the Quechua navel the world, has a history that dates back to around 1200 AD, although its splendor was reached in the fifteenth century under the rule of Inca Pachacutec.
1 .- Archeological Sites Attractions:
- Sacsayhuaman Archeological Complex, located 2 kilometers from Cusco.
- Archeological Qenko - Kenko, located 6 kilometers from Cusco.
- Archeological Site of Pukapukara - Puca Pucara, located 7 miles from Cusco.
- Archeological Tambomachay, located 9 kilometers from Cuzco.
- Archeological Raqchi or Wiracocha, located 112 kilometers from Cusco.
- Archeological Site of Choquequirao, located 90 kilometers from Abancay.
- Archeological Tipon, located 25 kilometers from Cusco.
- Archaeological Complex of Ollantaytambo, located 97 kilometers from Cusco.
2 .- Nearby Attractions
Cusco remains of its past as capital of the Inca Empire, of them all the more impressive is Qorikancha, the ancient Sun Temple, located at Avenida del Sol, south of the Plaza de Armas. In addition, the city contains the remains of Inca walls and palaces in various corners of the streets.
Cuzco is must-see sites, among which one can admire the most precious jewels of colonial architecture, the charming Plaza de Armas, where you can see the majestic profile of the temples of the Cathedral and the Company, the cloister of the church Santo Domingo, with its impressive paintings of the seventeenth century, the majestic church of the Society of Jesus, considered one of the pinnacles of American Baroque (XVII century), the church of San Blas, with choir stalls and pulpit carved monumental wood of nine meters high, the greatest exponent of Baroque country. Reach Cuzco means taking one of the excursions necessary for anyone who travels to Peru: The visit to the famous citadel of Machu Picchu, four-hour journey by train.
To understand better to see and where to start, we offer two maps of Cusco.
Places to visit in the city of Cusco:
The Mainsquare (Plaza de Armas) in Cusco
Called Huacaypata Quechua (crying or whining), due to expressions of reverence and submission, with which they carried out religious ceremonies and military here. Tradition has it that this place was designed by the founder Manco Capac symbolic center of the Empire.
View of the Mainsquare in Cusco at night
The balconies around the Mainsquare (Plaza de Armas)
The Cathedral
It was originally erected on the ancient temple of Sunturwasi (House of God), Triumph Church today. It was built later on Inca palace of Viracocha. The plant form a Latin cross with processional aisles, a chapter house, three ships, a sacristy, and ten side chapels. The facade and interior are in Renaissance style. The interior is decorated with carved cedar and alder. Martin highlighted carvings and Melchor Torres Huaman, the choir, the pulpit, carved wooden altars and furniture. It also contains paintings by famous artists and works in embossed silver.
Mainsquare (Plaza de Armas). At first glance the Cathedral.
Intipampa plaza, corner of Avenida El Sol and Santo Domingo street.Visits: L-S D 8:30 to 18:30 and 14.00-17.00.Entry in September 2009: 10 solesThe entrance to the enclosure is not included in the tourist ticket, only the small site museum.This site presents a lot of symbolism and may be interesting to do with a guide.
It is also known as Temple of the Sun This sanctuary, trapezoidal, presented in one side a semicircular wall which relies on the apse of the church. It is the clearest example of the architectural level reached by the Incas.
Qorikancha Temple (Quri Kancha), built in basaltic andesite and grayish red, according to the chroniclers was one of the most impressive buildings of Inca Cusco. Housed the main temple of Inti, the Sun God and believed that here started the imaginary lines called "dry" which united Qorikancha with more than 300 "waka" (sacred places, temples, observatories and religious buildings) located 10 kms from the temple. The Jesuit chronicler Bernabé Cobo lists and describes in "Historia del Nuevo Mundo" (1653) 328 "waka" connected by 41 or 42 "dry." On each of the lines "dry" were prepared from three to fifteen "waka."
Qorikancha walls were covered with gold leaf and was therefore known as the "gold room" where you could only enter into fasting, barefooted and with a load on his back in a sign of humility.
Interior Qorikancha
The enclosure housed several temples the main temple of the sun, the temple of the moon or Mamakilla (partly destroyed) Temple Ch'aska (Venus) and the stars, the temple of Illapa (the god of thunder, lightning and thunder) and the Temple of K'uychi (the rainbow). The temples have niches or niches in the form of a trapezoid.
This corridor seems to have been aligned with the constellation of the Pleiades in the early s. XV.
Interior Qorikancha
Within the grounds there is a golden altar in the drawing reproduced chronicle "of antiquities Value of this Kingdom of Peru", written in 1613 by Joan de Santa Cruz Pachacuti Yamqui Salcamaygua, Indian chronicler. The image sums up the cult of the Inca Qorikancha although it was performed many years after the cult had already disappeared, so that the author collects some oral tradition, no direct knowledge.
Altarpiece with the cults of the Inca cosmogony
On the original building Qorikancha the Spanish built around 1534, the Church and Convent of Santo Domingo, destroyed after the 1650 earthquake and rebuilt in 1681.
Affairs of the Church of Santo Domingo and Qorikancha
From the garden you can see the overlapping of structures.
Affairs of the Church of Santo Domingo and Qorikancha
Museum Site Qorikancha, very small, it is included in the entry of tourist ticket. Access to the museum entrance from Avenida del Sol
View of Cusco from Qorikancha
The Society of Jesus
It was built on the Amaru Cancha (fence of the Serpent), palace of Inca Huayna Capac, magnificent stone building. Save beautiful paintings like the wedding of a nephew of Saint Ignatius of Loyola with an Indian princess.
Church and Convent of La Merced: This building, with a splendid façade, was founded in 1536. It stands the tower of the church in a unique baroque stone. In the sacristy is kept in custody in his fabulous gold and precious stones.
Church and Convent of Santa Catalina
It has an important museum.
Church of San Blas
It is the oldest parish in Cuzco, and is located in the neighborhood of the crafts. She excels in the pulpit, an extraordinary work of woodcarving Churrigueresque Spanish.
Church and Convent of San Francisco
Stresses inside the building a huge canvas 12 x 9 meters, about the genealogy of the Franciscan family, made by Juan Espinoza de los Monteros.
Ajlla Wasi
House of the Virgins of the Sun or Chosen, Loreto Street.
Loreto Street: Aclla Huasi
Residence Hayna Inca Capac. Area partly occupied by the Church of the Jesuits and the university.
Kancha Kiswar
Residence of the Inca Viracocha. Area occupied by the Cathedral.
Hatunrumiyoc
This street is the most visited by tourists. On the street Hatun Rumiyoq ("Of the Rock Mayor") was the palace of Inca Roca, which currently belongs to the Archbishop's Palace.
In this street that runs from the Plaza de Armas to the San Blas neighborhood, you can see the enigmatic stone of twelve angles.
Hatunrumiyoc Street.
Stone of 12 angles
San Blas Neighborhood
This neighborhood focus artisans, craft workshops and shops, is one of the most picturesque city. Its streets are steep and narrow with old houses built by the Spanish over important Inca foundations. It has an attractive square and the oldest parish church in Cuzco, built in 1563, which has a carved wooden pulpit considered the epitome of colonial Cuzco. The Quechua name of this neighborhood is Toq'ocachi which means the opening of Salt
Museums
- Inka Museum of the San Antonio Abad National University, Cusco
Address: Cuesta del Almirante, Cusco Phone: (084) 237380
Description: pre-Columbian objects, metal funeral home, stonework, textiles and paintings artesanías.También Colonial Cusco.
- Museum of the Saint Catalina Convent, Cusco
Address: Santa Catalina 190, Cusco Phone: (084) 226 032 223 245
Description: Exhibition of Religious Art.
- Museum of La Merced Convent, Cusco
Address: Piazzetta Espinar - Blankets, Cusco Phone: (084) 231821
Description: Paintings of the Cuzco School of seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Faculty of carved stone and other objects of religious art.
- Archbishop's Palace Museum
Address: Calle Los Hardware, Cusco Phone: (084) 225211
Description: A collection of religious art
- Museum of Cusco Qoricancha Temple
Address: El Sol Av. w/n, Cusco Phone: (084) 222071
Description: Exhibition of pre-Columbian objects.
- Museum of Contemporary Art, Municipality of Cusco
Address: Santa Teresa, City Hall, Plazoleta of Joy, Cusco Phone: (084) 240043
Description: Exhibition of contemporary paintings and sculptures.
- Regional-Historical Museum of Cusco INC
Address: Casa Garcilaso. Street Ice Cream, Cusco Phone: (084) 223245
Description: Objects from the pre-Inca pottery, paintings, metal and textiles. Also metal objects from the colonial era. An exhibition hall for contemporary art.
Address: Plaza de Armas, Cusco Phone: (084) 222781
Description: Samples of religious and liturgical objects.
- Museum of Saint Jerónimo, Cusco
Address: Casa Cabildo, Plaza de San Jerónimo, Cusco Phone: (084) 223245
Description: A collection of colonial paintings from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
- Museum of Natural Sciences of the San Antonio Abad National University of Cusco
Address: Perayoc university auditorium, Cusco
Description: Displays of flora and fauna from the region.
- Museum of the American Institute of Arts
Address: El Sol Avenue, Tourist Galleries, Cusco
Description: On display are folk art pieces in the region.
- Pre-Columbian Art Museum, Cusco
Address: Plaza of the Nazarene - Cusco, in a beautiful Inca court house which was built in 1450. In 1580 was the Casa del conquistador Alonso Díaz, the Count of Cabral in 1850 and completely renovated in June 2003. Phone: (084) 233210
Description: Peru's first and only museum dedicated to highlight the art of ancient cultures of Peru.
Exposure:
Board of gold and jewelry, bone and shells, themed rooms and the formative period of the cultures Nazca, Mochica, Huari, Chimu, Chancay, Inca. Special Board of sculpture in wood. Painting room Colonial. 11 rooms con.450 artworks ranging from 1250 BC to 1532 AD, selected from a universe of 45,000 objects belonging to the cellars of the Larco Archaeological Museum of Lima. Hours: 9 am Museum through 6 pm every day. Cost: S/. 15.00 (adults), S/. 7.50 (students), S/. 5.00 (school)
In some streets perpendicular to Avenida del Sol Inca remains are preserved over where browse:
Inca Tupac Yupanqui Palace (315 Maruri Street)
It is currently the headquarters of Scotia Bank and used part of it as an exhibition. No admission is charged.
Qusi Kancha (Maruri Street between Romeritos and Santo Domingo)
Inca remains preserved inside a building belonging to the National Institute of Culture of Cusco. No admission is charged.
In the area of El Sol Avenue also have the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco in the number 603A, selling crafts and Qosqo Native Art Center, which is included in the ticket tourist and where from sevem pm you can attend to performances of traditional dances. There was plenty of competition when I was Peruvians, mostly of school visits.
Around the City
Sacsayhuaman
2 km from the city is the cyclopean fortress of the Inca period in three overlapping platforms, each over 360 feet long. Communicate using stairways and access doors of stone. One of these doors is 9 meters high and 5 meters wide.
Sacsayhuaman is one of the most amazing Incan constructions for tourists, when the Spanish arrived and saw the magnitude thought it was a fortress, but according to research, Sacsayhuaman was the Great House of the Sun, a temple dedicated to worship sun. It is built with huge carved rocks, together with absolute precision.
The main wall is formed by stones measuring up to 5 meters high and 2.5 meters wide, and weighing between 90 and 125 metric tons. Move these stones was a real feat, but so was the perfect fit between them and the care put into the curvature of the pads. Its Quechua name means "satisfied falcon."
Sacsayhuaman is one of the most amazing Incan constructions for tourists, when the Spanish arrived and saw the magnitude thought it was a fortress, but according to research, Sacsayhuaman was the Great House of the Sun, a temple dedicated to worship sun. It is built with huge carved rocks, together with absolute precision.
The main wall is formed by stones measuring up to 5 meters high and 2.5 meters wide, and weighing between 90 and 125 metric tons. Move these stones was a real feat, but so was the perfect fit between them and the care put into the curvature of the pads. Its Quechua name means "satisfied falcon."
View of Sacsayhuaman
So, was the falcon that guarded the capital of the empire, because from the hill on which was erected over the city. If, as is known, Cusco was designed in the shape of a puma recumbent Sacsayhuamán would be his head, while the Koricancha correspond to the genitals of felino.Su construction took more than seven decades and required the force of some 20.000 men, both in the work of foundations and quarrying, transport of materials, carving and positioning of the stones.
The splendor of Sacsayhuaman
Location of Sacsayhuaman (3600 m)
Sacsayhuaman is an archaeological site located north of the main square of Cuzco, 1 km. of the colonial church of San Cristobal and 2 kms. Plaza de Armas, a 10 minute drive. The appearance today is very different from that left by the conquerors, as this fort was used as a quarry to build the colonial Cusco. Sacsayhuaman is recreated in every 24 June, the ceremony of Inti Raymi, a celebration in honor of the ancient sun god.
Sacsayhuaman is an archaeological site located north of the main square of Cuzco, 1 km. of the colonial church of San Cristobal and 2 kms. Plaza de Armas, a 10 minute drive. The appearance today is very different from that left by the conquerors, as this fort was used as a quarry to build the colonial Cusco. Sacsayhuaman is recreated in every 24 June, the ceremony of Inti Raymi, a celebration in honor of the ancient sun god.
How to get to Sacsayhuaman
You can reach the archaeological park on foot or by car. If you want to reach on foot, the trip takes about 30 minutes while 10 minutes drive. There are several routes. Starting from the Plaza de Armas is possible to climb up the Cuesta del Almirante and Silversmiths or Sweden. All these culminate in the ring roads leading to Sacsayhuaman. On it goes directly to the entry control booth Archaeological Park.
The walking route to Sacsayhuaman: If you step over here you continue on Cordova Street to the Plaza of Nazarene, where the road takes Pumacurco Nazarene and then to the end. Another possibility is to advance through the Cuesta del Almirante coffin into the street and follow this road, then continue to the end Huaynapata. This journey takes about thirty minutes. Another pedestrian route from Sweden Street, turning on slippery Huaynapata and following, up to the Beltway Av.
Sacsayhuaman Sacsayhuaman and has survived only in time
White Christ in Sacsayhuaman, viewpoint of the city of Cusco.
Quenqo
It is 3 km from Cuzco. It is believed that it was a shrine. There is a huge block of stone about 6 feet high that looks like a puma are also passages, canals and stairways with stone engravings representing this animal.
Qenko for many archaeologists, have been a ceremonial center and place for rituals since it has an amphitheater with 19 niches, and has a way of accession to the subterranean labyrinth also has the top channels and carved shapes.
The visit to the Inca Archaeological leaves more questions than answers, since all the construction we can see messages to its possible meaning of magical-religious.
Integra this site, a semicircular courtyard defined by a parameter isometric with several large niches surrounding a stone or thin wall Wanka enclosed in a compound, is a kind of image within its own chapel. The mummy of Pachacuteq and relatives found by Polo de in Tòqokachi were probably housed in Q'enko.
This shrine is located on what is now known as Socorro hill and covers an area of 3,500 square meters. Among the things that the Spanish could not destroy the monument are:
- The Intiwatana
- The zigzagging duct
- The Amphitheatre
- The Board of the sacrifices
- Seats, carved aqueducts which gear, alleys and short platforms.
Seats
Slaughter room
The Intiwatana
Puca Pucara
Puca Pucara is a military building located near Cusco, Peru. This strength is composed of large walls, terraces and stairs and was part of the defensive and Cusco including Inca Empire in general. Located 6 km from the city.
It is an administrative and military center formed by terraces, stairways, turrets and niches.
In the field of archaeological buildings near the defunct empire's capital, visiting this town. Puca Pucara gets its name in Quechua "Red Fortress" because of the color red rocks acquired during twilight. Puca Pucara is another example of military architecture also worked as an administrative center, and invites us to walk its sidewalks, superimposed terraces, stairways and passages along which characters from the Inca empire.
Puca Pucara, military strength.
Puca Pucara, military strength.
Tambomachay
Tambomachay in Castilian or Tampumachay (Quechua: tanpu Mach'ay, resting place) is located near Cuzco, Peru. It is an archaeological site was intended for the worship of water and the head of the Inca empire could rest. This place is also known as Baños del Inca. It is 7 km from the city. It is known as the Baños del Inca.
It consists of a series of aqueducts, canals and several waterfalls that run through the rocks. What is surprising is that a main waterfall, the Incas created 2 secondary cascades, which are exactly alike. That is, if you place two empty bottles, one in each cascade, both are filled at the same time.
Here too there was a kind of royal garden which came from an elaborate irrigation canal system specially made for this role. It also was a control area of persons who came from Antisuyo, because there was no control tower.
The aqueducts and waterfalls characterize Tambomachay
Construction of water intended for worship.
Construction of water intended for worship.
Sources:
http://www.perucontact.com/
http://www.unique-southamerica-travel-experience.com/cusco.html
http://eldiwan2010.blogspot.com/2010_10_01_archive.html
http://www.covitour.com.pe/
http://www.grupoavych.com/cusco
http://imagenes.viajeros.com/fotos
http://wiki.sumaqperu.com/es/Qenko
http://www.delange.org/Quenko/Quenko.htm
http://images.travelpod.com/
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/y
http://www.moon.com/files/map-images/
http://www.aatccusco.com/mapas_y_planos.php
http://cuscotravelinfo.wordpress.com/
http://www.cusco-peru.org/
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http://www.pasaporteblog.com/
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