CUSCO CITY TOUR ½ DAY (HALF DAY)

To start the City Tour in Cusco, we’ll pick you up from your hotel in Cusco to get to the first point of the tour, the Temple of Coricancha also known as “Golden Temple or Temple of the Sun God” it was the most important temple for the Inca empire on which it was built the Convent of Santo Domingo in the colony, later we´ll visit the 4 ruins close to Cusco:

The archaeological site of Sacsayhuaman, is strategically built on a mountain from which it is possible to appreciate a view of the whole city of Cusco. It is famous for its enormous carved stones, some of them are 9 meters or 30 feet tall and weighing over 350 tons, on this place is held every year the Inti Raymi or Festival of the Sun.

Then you will visit the archaeological site of Kenko, means labyrinth or zigzag, it had a purely religious function and where it is believed that the Incas mummified their dead, on the outside has an amphitheater in a semicircular shape with trapezoidal niches and a monolith that simulates a puma shape which has about six meters.

Then we’ll go to the site of Puka Pukara which means “red fortress” because the calcareous stones of the buildings of this site have acquired the reddish color of the ground. This place had the function of protecting Tambomachay, an important palace in the Incas time. And also for its architectural layout and the existence of sources, aqueducts and multiple enclosures, it would have been a “tambo”, a collective lodge offering food and accommodation to the entourage that accompanied the Inka in his retirement to Tambomachay.

As a last point we’ll visit Tambomachay archaeological site, located about 8 kms. north of Cusco and close to the ruins of Puka Pucara, it’s an Incan site that is believed was dedicated to the worship of water and where the Leader of the Inca Empire come to rest. This place is also called Inca Baths and consists of a series of aqueducts, canals and several waterfalls that run through the rocks.

At the end we’ll return by bus to Cusco.

End of services.