Tourist Information
City tour Cusco is a tour of this magical Inca city, as well as the archaeological sites of Cusco in an economic way. It is also an excellent alternative to acclimatize if you plan to visit Machu Picchu, the Sacred Valley or other tourist destinations in Cusco.
Cusco is considered the oldest and most inhabited city in South America. This city attracts travelers of all nationalities, offering thousands of tourist destinations to all of them, which shows that it has a wide range of pre-Inca, Inca, colonial and republican archaeological complexes, which are part of the history of Peru and the American continent . .
To this we add the traditions, customs and vernacular legends that are still preserved. Therefore, the visit to the city of Cusco is the perfect place to start to know if you are a Peruvian or foreign visitor.
Machu Picchu, Quechua term whose meaning is Old Mountain. Today it is universally known, both for its imposing archaeological remains, as for its incomparable location, on the edge of an abyss in whose bottom run the mighty waters of the Urubamba River.
Machu Picchu, more than a citadel, is an architectural complex that only lacks the roofs. This complex is called a city, because of the large number of houses that currently number more than 200, and at its peak they must have been more. In addition, its design includes plazas, temples, roads, stairways, terraces, aqueducts, etc.
These are terraces or agricultural terraces built in gigantic natural depressions or holes. These terraces are superimposed concentrically, taking the form of a gigantic amphitheater. The biggest hole has a depth of 150 m and the average height of the platforms is 1.80 m.
According to historians, these constructions constituted an important agricultural laboratory of the Inca empire. Since their platforms are built with their respective irrigation channels and each of them constitute a microclimate. What is striking is the great difference in annual average temperature between the top and the bottom of the depressions, a difference that reaches up to 15 ° C. They allowed to cultivate more than 250 plant species. These platforms served as an Inca agricultural laboratory to experiment with their crops. Moray encloses history and landscape beauty.
Named for being the main food supplier of the Inca empire, the Sacred Valley sits on the banks of the Urubamba River. This river in its beginnings has the name of Vilcanota, that comes from the Quechua word Wilcamayu or Sacred River. The Incas built archaeological centers, along their banks, that replicated the constellations that they knew of the Andean sky so this contributes, even more, to the beauty of this charming valley.
The Sacred Valley of the Incas is located 35 kilometers from Cusco, and about 600 meters below the level of Cusco. It covers the part of the basin of the Vilcanota River between the populations of Pisac and Ollantaytambo.
Salkantay is located in the district of Mollepata and is one of the 9 districts of the Province of Anta, located in the Department of Cusco, located 90 kilometers from the Imperial City.
Mollepata not only has a splendid agricultural production but also tours allowing visitors a variety of experiences, from the most intimate and peaceful to intense and seasoned. While this district receives about 27 000 tourists a year (according to the Regional Directorate of Culture), the most of them only staying for one or two days there since their objective is to reach Machu Picchu.
Few lucky ones take the time to stop in order to appreciate what is becoming a new route of experiential tourism, whether they want to reach the Inca citadel or just go into the valleys of clean air scented with eucalyptus.
The famous Salkantay is in this beautiful town of Mollepata, the summit of Salkantay has two peaks, which are located at an altitude of 6,200 m (20 341 feet), in the East and West parts. Formerly the one in the west part was more slender and attractive for being slightly higher and surmounted by a Glacier.
Mollepata has over 15 climatic zones where you have the opportunity to produce almost everything, with plenty of avocados. You will also see the Rumi killa; stone carved in the shape of the moon.
Choquequirao (comes from the words aymara chuqui, oro, and quechua k’iraw, cradle, that is to say: “cradle of gold”), is another one of the archaeological zones also like Inca citadel, it is located between the branches of the snowy of Salcantay, to the south of Peru. These archaeological remains of Choquequirao are made up of a set of buildings and terraces distributed in different levels, from the lowest level to the highest truncated top, which was leveled and surrounded with stones to form a platform with an approximate area of 150 meters squares.
Choquequirao (sometimes also referred to as Choqequirau or Choquekiraw) is also known as the “sacred sister” of Machu Picchu for the structural as well as architectural similarities with it. Well not long ago it became known to this majestic place, awakening in this way the interest of many tourists and interested.
