Cusco, Peru

Cusco is a city in the southeastern part of Peru, in the Andes at an altitude of 3500 m. It is the oldest city in South America. According to a legend, the city was built in the 12th century by the first Inca, Manco Capac, who believed that Cusco was the "center of the world". Cuzco became the capital of the largest empire in the Western Hemisphere - the Inca Empire. When the Spanish came, they sacked it, demolished it and started building a new city. Its foundations were laid by Francisco Pizarro in 1534. But the earthquake in 1650 destroyed most of the new Christian churches and palaces, while the rest of the Inca buildings survived. From that distant time, the remains of the Inca Palace, the Temple of the Sun, the Temple of the Virgins have survived today. The most interesting thing about the city of Cusco is that descendants of the Incas live here - the Quechua tribe.

In the vicinity of Cusco are the fortresses "Olyataytambo" and "Saxayhuaman". With stone doors 3m high and cornerstones more than 8m high, Sacsayhuaman is an extraordinary achievement of human thought. Incredibly, in this Inca site, the stone walls were made without mortar, and appear naturally immovable.

The Cathedral in Cusco is an impressive baroque building in the Square of Armas. It was built on the foundations of the Palace of Viracocha, important to the Incas. Next to the cathedral is the modest church "El Trinto" - the oldest Christian temple in Cusco. It houses the oldest portrait of the city of Cusco during the earthquake of 1650. The most famous exhibit in the cathedral is the "Last Supper" by Marcos Zapata. On it, Jesus and his disciples feasted on a qui, a small skinned pig, which is a specialty of the Peruvians. In the Museo Inca, located in a beautiful colonial building, you can see, among other exhibits, Inca mummies. A beautiful place is the Church of San Blas, in which the ornate pulpit is considered one of the pearls of colonial art in America.