History of Cusco

History of Cusco is great and legendary, Cusco was built in a valley that bears the traces of settlements in 1000 BC, although the Cusco valley was inhabited by different tribes hundreds of years before the arrival of the Incas.

It grew into a city when the Incas made Cusco their capital. The city, called Qosqo by the Incas, was a sacred site, filled with temples and palaces which according to legend resembled the shape of a puma, evoking ancient mythological figures.

Shape of Puma? Cusco Inca City

Sacsayhuaman fortress represented the head of the puma, while the body was portrayed by the city, which spread out between two rivers: the Saphy and the Tullumayo, which have since been channeled under streets with the same names. The spot where the two rivers flowed into each other, now marked by a fountain, was known as Pumaqchupan, or "the puma's tail".

The temples and palaces of the puma city were one-storey buildings, capped off by twin-eaved straw roofs, or circular constructions which leaned to one side to facilitate rainwater drainage.

Inca architecture in Cusco

The unique characteristic of Inca architecture which amazed the first Spaniards to enter the city, and which continues to inspire admiration amongst visitors today, was the quality of the polished stone and perfect dovetailed fit between stone blocks.

Despite the fact the Incas were unfamiliar with iron, they achieved this extraordinary level of stonemasonry thanks to their familiarity with their working material and the skillfuI use of their simple tools, such as hard quartzite stone.

It is believed that the Inca constructions needed a large labor force, something which could only have been possible in a highly organized.

Cusco stood out for the sober architecture of its walls and their characteristic sloping quality which made them more resistant to the frequent earthquakes in the area. These walls, often built from andesite and diorite, did not always have the same appearance.

Inca Constructions in Cusco

The massive, rectangular shape of Qoriqancha and Acllahuasi (now Loreto street), and the smaller-scale rectangular Cusiqancha (today the Santo Domingo square in front of the Qoriqancha). The irregular geometric shape, meanwhile can be seen at Hatun Rumiyoc Street.

The dominating elements in this city must have been Sacsayhuaman, Qoriqancha and the Sunturhuasi, a circular tower that stood three or four storeys high which apparently was built in the main square, which occupied what is today the Plaza de Armas, the Plaza Regocijo, the two blocks that separate them, and the block around Hotel Cusco. The pattern in which housing was grouped, and buildings in general, was called a kancha, a rectangular area surrounded by stone walls, generally with a single entrance.

Inside, distributed symmetrically, were two to eight constructions which were single-storey and single-cell. The kanchas were linked up by narrow streets which gave the city an octagona shape made up of a system of straight streets.

One of the peculiarities of Cusco Inca City was its perfect adaptation to the topography of the valley and its natural contours, which in many cases made the original quadrangular shape bulge out and the streets become winding alleys.

Cosmic Vision of Inca Culture in Cusco

Another characteristic of Inca Cusco, which responded to the cosmic vision of the ancient Cusco inhabitants, was its division into two halves, the Hanan and Hurin, above and below each of which was in turn subdivided into two halves again.

A reflection of the division of the empire into four realms or suyos: Chinchaysuyo, Antisuyo, Collasuyo and Contisuyo. The city was divided into four parts by the four roads that led out of the city and headed for the four suyos.

Sacred Places of Cusco or Inca’s Ceques

A complementary system of spatial organization in Inca Cusco was that of the ceques, imaginary lines that radiated from the Temple of the Sun in the direction of die four suyos and which linked up, with shrines or temples in Cusco. In each of the sectors of the Chinchaysuyo, Antisuyo and Collasuyo there were nine ceques, and fourteen in the Contisuyo.

The number of huacas (sacred monuments generally used as tombs), according to a list written down by chronicler Bernabe Cobo, totaled 333.

One should remember that the Incas held sacred not only temples like the Qoriqancha, but also the sites where the rulers were born, as weIl as the places where their relics, were left behind. The Incas also worshipped large stones, springs, rivers and lakes as well as caves.

Cusco Inca’s City

The unique nature of the Inca capital was further compounded by the fact it was surrounded by terracing which spread beyond the two rivers that formed the city limits. Today one river flows underneath the streets of Saphy, Plateros and Avenida El Sol, while the other runs underneath Choquechaca and Tullumayo.

These fields, which were treated with care, formed a buffer zone which isolated the sacred quarter in the center of the city. The Inca neighborhoods where the common folk lived were built around this buffer zone. Which most chronicler said numbered twelve, starting at Tokokachi (today San Blas), these were: Munaysenqa, Rimajpampa. Pumajchupan, Qoripata, Cayauqachi, Chaquillchaca, Picchu, Qarmenqa, Wakapunku, Qolqampata and Qantupata.

Inca’s main part of the city also covered a vast and densely populated suburban area which stretched across a radius of up to 5 km. In total, according to the calculations of Santiago Agurto, the Inca capital covered an area of 476 hectares, of which 88ha belonged to the sacred quarter, 105ha lay in the buffer zone and 283ha were covered by surrounding areas. The suburban sector, meanwhile, could have covered an area of 500 ha.

Inca Culture and History of Cusco

Cusco was the city discovered by the Spaniards and which sparked admiration among many of them, including Pedro Sancho, Francisco Pizarro's secretary, who noted down in an account for the Spanish king: "The city of Cusco, as it was the main city of all those which served as a residence for the lords, is so great, so beautiful and with so many buildings, that it, would be worthy of being seen in Spain."

Chroniclers such as Friar Antonio de la Calancha (1638) compared the architectural grandeur and religious importance of prehispanic Cusco with the pagan splendor of the ancient cities of Babylon and Caesar's Rome.

Its administrative organization, which subdivided quarters according to origin and specialty of the craftsmen, its architectural harmony, wisely adapted to the landscape and weather; the efficient conservation of the environment and the ingenious provision of natural resources to keep the economy humming made the Cusco of the Incas.

The finest model of social organization that this civilization bequeathed to the Andean world. The city features unique characteristics that can still be admired today, and which inspires a universal fascination.