Cusco a Charming and Fascinating City

Cusco is a fascinating and a charming city in southeastern Peru near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range and is the capital of the Cusco Region and the Cuzco Province. The city had a population of 510,000 in the year 2009 and located at the end of the eastern area of the Knot of Cuzco, it has an elevated height of around 3,400m (11,200 ft).

 This destination was the site of the historic capital of the Inca Empire which was declared in 1983 as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Moreover it also a major tourist location with almost two million tourists visiting this place every year and has been designated by the Constitution of Peru as the Historical Capital of Peru.

Several people believed that the city was planned as an effigy in the shape of a puma, a sacred animal and under the Inca; the city had two sectors, the urin and hanan which were further divided to cover two of the four provinces Chinchasuvu (NW), Kuntisuvu (SW), Antisuvu (NE) and Qullasuvu (SE).

Lost City of Inca, Machu Picchu

Each of these quarters had a road leading from it to the corresponding quarter of the empire where each local leader had to build a house in the city and live for some time of the year in Cusco, in the quarter only, corresponding to the quarter of the empire within his territory. After the Pachacutis rule and at the demise of an Inca, his title was passed on to his son and the property was handed over to a corporation which was controlled by his relatives which is known as split inheritance.

The title holders each had to build new house adding new land to the empire to enable them to own the land his family would need to maintain after his death. Many of the tourists are lured by its cobbled streets, with its unique combination of colonial and religious splendors which are built on the high stone foundations of the Incas. Within the close quarters of the city is the country’s biggest draw card, the `lost’ city of Incas, Machu Picchu which is a lofty Inca citadel standing tall on an isolated mountaintop.

Flamboyant Fiestas and Carnivals

Cuzco boast of a list of flamboyant fiestas as well as carnivals where the nation’s past pagan collides solemnly in a colorful manner with Catholic rituals and modern Latin American mayhem. One can enjoy the breathtaking attitudes of the Andean peaks as you descend through cloud forest painted with rare orchids to lush lowlands of the Amazon jungle which can be done while trekking on foot, or mountain biking, river running or availing the local buses and trucks which drive the tourist to these remote areas of this destination.

Once can find some of the most fascinating archaeological site in and around the Inca’s ancestral homeland in the Sacred Valley of the Rio Urubamba with quaint colonial towns, artisan markets along with fascinating trekking routes to fulfill a trekking expedition.

Peru has two basic seasons of wet and dry and the rainy season is from November to April where traveler can look forward to brief afternoon showers during this period while during the rest of the year, it is dry with warm days and cold nights.