Cusco - City Tour

(Shawna's note: All pictures here are from the internet. They are at too slow connections to upload photos).

We arrived in www.infoperu.com/en/view.php?lang=en&p=41"> Cusco on April 20th at 4:00 a.m. after a six-hour ride from Puno. We got our hotel and after a few hours sleep began exploring Cusco.
Cusco or Qosqo is a beautful city of nestled in a valley surrounded by mountains. It was the capital of the Inca Empire. There are many walls, streets in the city that were built by the Inca. We tasted some of Peru´s cuisine and had a band serenade us during dinner. However, we have not had a meail of coy (guinea pig): The next day we took a City Tour.



First the City Tour took us to the Convento De Santo Domingo Del Cusco, Qorikancha It is compared to the Great Mosque in Cordoba, Spain. The Spanish in Spain built over an original Muslim Mosque.

In Cusco, the Spainish built over the Inca Temple of the Sun, Temple of the Moon. The walls of the Inca temples were lined with gold. There were life-size figures, altars made of gold, together with a huge golden sun disc. The Spanish ransacked the temple and melted the gold and used the polish stone walls as the foundation for the Convent. This happened in the 17th century. We were not allowed to take pictures in this Convent/Temple.

Then we went to a couple of other Inca sites that were truly amazing.

We drove out to the Sacsayhuaman ruins. This site was both religious and military. The work involved in building the site in terms of huge stone blocks that were piled upon each other.
To this day, scholars, historians do not know how the Incas were able to do this, as some of the blocks weigh 100 tons.
Sacsayhuaman (satisfied falcon) - (pronounced like sexy woman) - is an Incan sacred and strategic site above the city, serves as the head of the puma.

On the peak of a hill overlooking the city of Cusco lies the ancient fortress of Sacsayhuaman . Once the domain of Inca warriors, nobles and engineers it now stands in ruins but many visitors explore its maze of intricately constructed walls, stairways and structures. After the conquest of Cusco in 1536 most of the inner structures of Sacsayhuaman were dismantled and used to construct Spanish Cusco.



We also went to another Inca site called Tambomachay, which was the site where the Inca built three tiers of stone platforms to control the flow of water. The Incas worshipped the sun, earth and water, so there is always a water element to their temples. This sytem fed the City of Cusco its water through a system of aqueducts and canals. The water is still running to this day.

The construction is attributed to the public works commanded by Pachacutec Inca. It's also known as the "Baths of the Inca" for its fountain, falls, and streams. This place of recreation for the Inca and the princesses was also used as lodging for hunting trips. The fountain, its terraces, stairways, portals, and walls give the place a devout atmosphere.

It is considered to be a sacred place for water, a theory shared by past and present Andean inhabitants.

Then we went to site where the Inca performed sacrifices to their "gods". It was a spiritual Centre for that purpose. The Incas scarificed llamas for the purpose of having a prosperous year. The scarifice altar was a huge stone built underneath the site. In addition, the spiritual leaders met here for prayer and to discuss important issues.