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Besides the beauty of the landscape in the towns located
in the
"
Valle Sagrado de los Incas"
(Sacred Valley of the Inca), near
Cusco,
other towns are located, that also because of the
importance of their archaeological locations, beauty of
their fields and landscapes, are an excellent
destination. We recommend the visit to the places that
are described next.
On the highway that joins Cusco with the northwestern
part of "Valle Sagrado de los Incas" (Sacred Valley of
the Incas), with a beautiful view of the Mountain Range
of Urubamba, with beautiful snowy peaks, and some
lagoons, we can visit:
Chinchero
Located at the northwest of Cusco, at 28 km. (17.4
miles), called "El
Pueblo Del Arco Iris" (the town of the
rainbow), it is located in a valley, the town of
Hispanic architecture is built on old Inca
constructions. Its people are the most conservative of
the Inca traditions, wearing picturesque clothing. Every
Sunday they carry out the "catu",
exchange fair of agricultural products, in which the use
of the currency is discarded and everything is made in
exchange. Also outstanding the textile crafts (crafts as
well as local produce).
Archaeological locations, Inca palaces, "andenerías"
(terraces), and a great fortress in the place that they
attributed the appearance of the rainbow.
The town, has a beautiful colonial church, with
famous paintings of the
Escuela Cusqueña
.
Beautiful Andean landscapes surround the town,
outstanding the beauty of the snowy mountains Chicon and
Veronica of the Mountain Range of Urubamba.
Moray
This is a strange place. Area located at 53 km northwest
of Cusco, highlights an admirable Inca experimental
farm, where a natural depression has been transformed in
enormous terraces superimposed in concentric form with a
shape of a great coliseum, achieving up to 150 meters in
difference of height levels. This technology allowed the
old Inca farmers to study the effect of altitude on
different plants and create diverse weathers, to
experience and to obtain varieties of plants that
improved their crops. It was a great laboratory.
Each terrace possesses contention walls and they are
connected by a complex system of artificial channels of
irrigation that are a sample of the high hydraulic
technology that the Inca also reached.
Maras
It is a bizarre site. Area located at 60 km. (37 miles)
and 7 km (4.3 miles) from Moray, where layers of beige and
white salt pants are still used to crystallize salt from
water. These mines were exploited from pre-Inca
time. The disposition in the ways used for the
extraction of the salt, transforms it into a spectacular
scenario. These mines are located very near the town of
Maras.
The plateau of Maras and Moray are excellent places to
trekking or mountain biking; the landscapes are
beautiful, and you will be able to have the sensation of
touch the sky or snowy peaks.
The tourist
corridor called "Manco Capac"
The following places and towns are in the route and
to the margin of the train line between
Cusco
and
Juliaca - Puno (Lake
Titicaca)
on the valley of Huatanay. This train route was
awarded such as second rout most beautiful of world.
San Sebastián
Town located at 5 km. (3 miles) southeast of Cusco, in
front of their Main Square highlights a beautiful
colonial church, with facade of carved stone and richly
ornamented, of Baroque style, beautiful collection of
paintings with Saint John the Baptist's life. Their two
towers are identical, in spite of the fact that they
were built with a 155 year-old difference. Very near
this church, is located "Capilla de San Lázaro" (the
chapel of San Lázaro), where numerous Spaniards were
buried death in the "Guerra de Las Salinas" (War of Las
Salinas), in the battle that was sustained between the
Spanish conquerors Hernando Pizarro and Diego de Almagro
for the domain of Cusco in 1538.
Tipón
Inca archaeological area, located at 23 km. (14 miles)
southeast of Cusco. According to legends, Tipon is one
of the royal gardens that Wiracocha ordered to be built.
It is made up of twelve terraces flanked by perfectly
polished stonewalls and enormous agricultural terraces,
canals, and decorative waterfalls that, along with the
native flowers of the area, offers the visitor a
stunning vision. The site is composed of different
sectors: Tipon itself, Intiwatana, Pukutuyuj and Pucará,
Cruz Moqo, the cemetery of Pitopujio, Hatun Wayq´o,
among others.
Oropesa
25 Km from Cusco, an early-rising community whose
forty-seven bakeries have provided Cusco with its daily
bread for generations.
Lucre
Small town located at 35 km. (22 miles) southeast of
Cusco, beautiful Andean landscapes, and a beautiful
lagoon, where families living in Cusco go on Sunday for
walks, vacation and recess center.
Piquillacta
Inca archaeological area, located at 38 km. (23.6 miles)
southeast of Cusco, remains of a city that occupied an
area of 50 hectares, big buildings, some of two floors,
embankments, big walls that reach up to 7 m height,
aqueducts. Also highlights the great quantity of colcas
(deposits of grains), and the style of their
construction, with small stones, put together with mud.
This location is a place where you can also magnify the
reach achieved by the Inca in the architecture and urban
organization. The historians attribute to this place a
character of military defense and center of supplies,
for the big deposits of agricultural products, tools,
dresses and war weapons that have been found.
Rumicolca
Inca archaeological area, located at 39 km. (24.2 miles)
southeast of Cusco and at 1 km. (0.62 miles) of
Piquillacta. It constituted the main and obligatory
entrance to Cusco in the route to the Collasuyo (county
of the south, in the
Tahuantisuyo),
with functions of customs. A great and imposing cover
built in carved stone, surrounded with high walls in
which inferior vertex a water channel runs, also a great
aqueduct that was used to take water to the population
of Piquillacta.
Andahuaylillas
Town located at 45 km southeast of Cusco; it has a
church with humble external aspect that keeps one of the
most valuable jewel of the colonial art in Peru,
denominated the Capilla Sixtina of Peru." The interior
of the Church of San Pedro of Andahuaylillas is an
explosion of Baroque art with great quantity of
decorations. It was built in 1631, and according to the
Spanish tradition, about an Inca temple, it has numerous
and beautiful paintings of the
Escuela Cusqueña;
its altars and wood carvings are beautiful pieces
elaborated in leaf of gold, its colored roof is a
perfect beauty.
Raqchi -
Wiracocha Temple
117 km (73 miles) from Cuzco.
Built in the fifteenth century, it is considered by the
historians to be one of the most audacious Inca
constructions. The remarkable Wiracocha temple, 100
meters (328 feet) long and 20 meters (66 feet) wide is
made of adobe walls built on top of volcanic stone
foundations. The complex also includes a residential
area made for the Inca nobles and dozens of circular
warehouses to store food.
Paucartambo
Town of Spanish Colonial and Inca (mestizo)
architecture, 4,300 meters above sea level (14,107
feet). It is located northeast of the city of Cusco, on
the Andean area, with beautiful landscapes, and it is
the entrance door to the forest area of Cusco. It has
rich Inca archaeological locations in its periphery.
Known as the folkloric capital of Cusco, for the
abundance of autochthonous dances of Inca origin that
are conserved in this region. Special celebration of
feast of Virgen del Carmen (July).
Tres Cruces
109 km (68 miles) southeast of Cusco, take the partially
tarred highway (3 hours by car) to the Paucartambo from
where you must travel 45 km / 28 miles to the Tres
Cruces Lookout (2 hours and 30 minutes by 4x4 vehicle on
a rough road). Tres Cruces is a natural lookout located
on the edge of the
Manu
Biosphere Reserve. This place is famous for the
so-called “white ray” phenomenon that occurs when the
sun rises over the horizon during the winter solstice
(June, July). The light shines through the humid
atmosphere and is distorted as if going through a prism.
The effect causes three suns to appear, one of them
seems to be jumping from one side to the other. From
Tres Cruces the road continues toward the deep valley of
Kosñipata and the Alto Madre de Dios River, that passes
through the lush cloud forests of the Manu National
Park, one of the world’s most diverse paradises.
Cusco Photo Gallery:
Raqchi - Wiracocha Temple
Tipón Inca Palace
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