peru-8-cuzco-sacred-valley

premier South American destination, also
the gateway to Machu Picchu.
Visitors to Cuzco get a glimpse of the
richest heritage of any South American city.
Married to 21st century hustle, at times it’s a
bit disconcerting (note the KFC and McDonalds
behind the Inca stones). As rent soars
on the Plaza de Armas and in trendy San
Blas, locals are increasingly pushed to the
margins. Foreign guests undoubtedly have
the run of the roost, showing respect toward
today’s incarnation of this powerhouse culture
is imperative.
History
Legend tells that in the 12th century, the
first inca (king), Manco Capac, was ordered
by the ancestral sun god Inti to find the spot
where he could plunge a golden rod into the
ground until it disappeared. At this spot –
deemed the navel of the earth (qosq’o in the
Quechua language) – he founded Cuzco, the
city that would become the thriving capital
of the Americas’ greatest empire.
The Inca empire’s main expansion occurred
in the hundred years prior to the arrival
of the conquistadors in 1532. The ninth
inca, Pachacutec, gave the empire its first
bloody taste of conquest, with unexpected
victory against the more dominant Chanka
tribe in 1438. His was the first wave of expansion
that would create the Inca empire.
Pachacutec also proved himself a sophisticated
urban developer, devising Cuzco’s
famous puma shape and diverting rivers to
cross the city. He built fine buildings, including
the famous Qorikancha temple and a
palace on a corner of what is now the Plaza
de Armas. Among the monuments he built
in honor of Inca victories are Sacsaywamán,
the temple-fortress at Ollantaytambo and
possibly even Machu Picchu.
Expansion continued under following generations
until Europeans discovered the New
World; at that point, the empire ranged from
Quito, in Ecuador, to the area south of Santiago
in Chile. Shortly before the arrival of the
Europeans, Huayna Cápac had divided his
empire, giving the northern part to Atahualpa
and the southern Cuzco area to another son,
Huascar. The brothers fought bitterly for the
kingdom. As a pure-blooded native cuzqueño
(inhabitant of Cuzco), Huascar had the people’s
support, but Atahualpa had the backing
of the battle-hardened northern army. In
early 1532 they won a key battle, capturing
Huascar outside Cuzco.
Meanwhile, Francisco Pizarro landed in
northern Peru and marched southward. Atahualpa
himself had been too busy fighting
the civil war to worry about a small band
of foreigners, but by 1532 a fateful meeting
had been arranged with the Spaniard in Cajamarca.
It was a meeting that would radically
change the course of South American
history: Atahualpa was ambushed by a few
dozen armed conquistadors, who succeeded
in capturing him, killing thousands of indigenous
tribespeople and routing tens of
thousands more.
In an attempt to regain his freedom, the
inca offered a ransom of a roomful of gold
and two rooms of silver, including gold
stripped from the temple walls of Qorikancha.
But after holding Atahualpa prisoner
for a number of months, Pizarro murdered
him anyway, and soon marched on to Cuzco.
Mounted on horseback, protected by armor
and swinging steel swords, the Spanish cavalry
was virtually unstoppable.
Pizarro entered Cuzco on November 8,
1533, by which time he had appointed Manco,
a half-brother of Huascar and Atahualpa,
as the new puppet leader. After a few years
of keeping to heel, however, the docile puppet
rebelled. In 1536, Manco Inca set out to
drive the Spaniards from his empire, laying
siege to Cuzco with an army estimated at well
over a hundred thousand people. Indeed, it
was only a desperate last-ditch breakout and
violent battle at Sacsaywamán that saved the
Spanish from complete annihilation.
Manco Inca was forced to retreat to Ollantaytambo
and then into the jungle at Vilcabamba.
After Cuzco was safely recaptured,
looted and settled, the seafaring Spaniards
turned their attentions to the newly founded
colonial capital, Lima. Cuzco’s importance
quickly waned, and it became just another
colonial backwater. All the gold and silver
was gone, and many Inca buildings were
pulled down to accommodate churches and
colonial houses.
The Spanish kept chronicles in Cuzco, including
Inca history as related by the Incas
themselves. The most famous of these accounts
is The Royal Commentaries of the Incas,
written by Garcilaso de la Vega, the son
of an Inca princess and a Spanish military
captain.
1 Sights
While the city is sprawling, areas of interest to
visitors are generally within walking distance,
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Cuzco & the Sacred Valley S C I u G zC H T O S