History of Cusco

Cusco was the capital of Tahuantinsuyu (Inca Empire). The city was planned to be shaped like a puma. The city had two sectors: the hurin and hanan, which were further divided to each encompass two of the four provinces, Chinchasuyu (NW), Antisuyu (NE), Cuntisuyu (SW), and Collasuyu (SE). A road led from each of these quarters to the corresponding quarter of the empire. Each local leader was required to build a house in the city and live part of the year in Cusco, but only in the quarter of Cusco that corresponded to the quarter of the empire he had territory in.

After Pachacuti, when an Inca died his title went to one son and his property was given to a corporation controlled by his other relatives, so each title holder had to build a new house and add new lands to the empire, in order to own any home and the land his family needed to maintain it after his death. Andean Indians still abandon their homes and build new ones when they marry, even if no one remains in the house.

According to Inca legend, the city was built by Sapa Inca Pachacuti, the man who transformed the Kingdom of Cusco from a sleepy city-state into the vast empire of Tahuantinsuyu. But archaeological evidence points to a slower, more organic growth of the city beginning before Pachacuti. There was however a city plan, and two rivers were channeled around the city.

Introducation of Cusco

Cusco (also Cuzco, Qosqo, or Qusqu) is a city in southeastern Peru sierra del sur, near the Urubamba Valley (Sacred Valley) of the Incas mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region as well as the Cusco Province. The city has a population of about 300,000, triple the population it contained just 20 years ago.CUSCO (also spelt Cuzco with a “z”), mythical capital of the Inca Empire, preserves its stone walls and battlements with pride, evoking the greatness of the “Children of the Sun”. It’s a city packed full of historicalmonuments and relics, of myths and legends, which seem to come to life every time you walk through its century old streets.

At 3,360 meters above sea level (m.a.s.l.), in the Huatanay valley of the southeastern Andes of Peru, visiting Cusco is an unforgettable experience, as it allows you to uncover some of the mysteries of the Incas, because Cusco was the center, the “navel” of the Andean world.

The history of the Imperial City of Cusco, the legend goes, begins inthe 11th or 12th century when the first Inca, Manco Capac, obeying the dictates of the Sun God, founded Cusco. On March 23, 1534, Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish conquistador of Peru, refounded the Inca city as a Spanish colonial settlement.
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