Cusco
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Trip.Best Top 10 Best Things to Do in Cusco [2024]
Explore the best things to do in Cusco! Uncover top activities and experiences for an unforgettable visit.
Updated Nov 2024
- 7.84.6/537 Review"The Mexican Cathedral (LaCatedraldeMexico) is the largest and most important Catholic church in Mexico on the Constitution Square. There are many ornate relief paintings on the round vault inside. The main altar is surrounded by various gold and silver jewelry and noble ornate carvings, as well as large religious paintings, a crucifix carved with ivory in the middle."Cusco2.1 km from downtownChurches and CathedralsHistorical SitesHighlights: A very eye-catching building in the east of the Plaza de Armas is the Cuzco Cathedral of Cusco. It is a very typical example of colonial rulers promoting the Catholic faith to the local indigenous people. The church has been damaged to varying degrees in four major earthquakes over the past 400 years, but all survived. The Cathedral is a very outstanding colonial building in Cusco, where you can see the high level of European painting style in the 17th century. Not to be missed is "The Last Supper" (The Last Supper) in the northeast corner of the church. The painter Marcos Zapata has made a "localized" modification of this famous work - a guinea pig is placed on a plate in front of Jesus.Show Less
- 7.54.5/520 Review"Cusco's solar temple has a long history. Cusco's solar temple (QORIKANCHA) ticket is 15 pesos. There are many tourists, all using headphones to listen to the explanation, although there are many people without noise. It is very large inside, basically introducing religious content, Inca culture, Spanish colonial development and other content. Among them, Cusco was the center of Inca. There is also an introduction to the Inca period architecture. The whole large stone piles up with tight seams, no gaps, showing the original stone piles. The courtyard is large and there is a well in the middle. The paintings on the wall show ancient people's understanding and belief in the sun. It takes more than an hour to look closely."Cusco1.6 km from downtownHistorical SitesHighlights: The Temple of the Sun is a sacred place in the Inca Empire, built during the reign of the great emperor Pachacuti in the history of the Inca civilization, dedicated to the sun god Inti.Show Less
- 7.54.5/531 Review"Saxewaman is located on a mountaintop, and its historical position is comparable to Machu Picchu, but its reputation is relatively small. It is still very beautiful to stand in Saxewaman and look out over the city"Cusco2.9 km from downtownChurches and CathedralsHistorical SitesHighlights: This huge stone circle overlooks the city of Cusco. Like other typical Inca buildings, the Incas did not use any reinforced concrete. They used exquisite stone grinding technology to grind the large stones into specific shapes, and then put them together tightly. The stone circles that tourists see now are only a small part of the original ones. Today Sacsayhuaman is not only a must-see attraction for tourists to Cusco, but the highlight of IntiRaymi, the grand festival of the sun at the end of June every year, is held here.Show Less
- 7.04.6/556 Review"In ancient Egyptian architecture, there is no more impressive than the pyramids. Temple architecture is an important carrier of Egyptian civilization, reflecting the development level of ancient Egyptian social civilization, condensing the wisdom of ancient Egyptians, and containing the multi-layer connotations of ancient Egyptians' religious beliefs, national aesthetics, cultural symbols and so on. Most temples in Egypt were built to worship the sun god."Cusco1.6 km from downtownHistorical SitesHighlights: This temple, built on top of a small cave, is the epitome of the ancient Incas' astronomy and architecture. The Temple of the Sun has a semi-circular shape that captures the movement of the sun due to its unique location and structure. At the winter solstice in the southern hemisphere on June 21 every year, the sun shines directly into the center of a large granite rock in the center of the temple through a small trapezoidal window. Astronomers and archaeologists speculate that this granite functioned as an Inca calendar. If you look out from this window in the temple, those who know more about constellations will notice the Pleiades, the constellation that represents a good harvest. In addition, some archaeologists speculate that the cave below the Temple of the Sun (Royal Tomb) once stored the mummy of Pachacútec, the ruler of the history of the Inca civilization. But Hiram Bingham found no mummy or human bone remains in the cave when he came here in 1919.Show Less
- 6.64.4/523 ReviewFree"A very magical place, it is difficult to understand or imagine how people thousands of years ago could make such a complete station into stone walls, and this is also a place with local characteristics, you can appreciate the local customs and customs of the locals."Cusco2 km from downtownRock MonumentsHistorical SitesHighlights: Hatunrumiyoc Street is lined with ancient walls from the Inca era. The entire ancient wall is made of pieces of large stones that are cut flat and stacked like a puzzle. Although the stones on the wall are of different shapes and sizes, the ingenious combination is amazing. The stones are so tightly combined that even a piece of paper cannot be inserted. This is the brilliant masonry technology of the ancient Inca masons. This ancient wall street is more famous for a dodecagonal Inca stone (Piedradelos 12Angulos), which attracts many tourists to take pictures here. As its name suggests, the dodecagonal Inca stone has 12 sides and 12 corners, and is an existing Inca stone with polygonal corners. This seemingly random but meticulously calculated construction method is actually stronger than a neatly cut stone wall, standing upright after several major earthquakes. Go a little further and there is a side street (IncaRoca) on the right hand side with the famous jaguar stone wall. There are more than 20 stones on the top to spell out the image of a jaguar (Puma). Seeing or not seeing a jaguar requires your own imagination.Show Less
- 6.54.5/549 ReviewFree"I went to several cities in Peru and found that there seemed to be weapons squares, which seemed to be standard. The weapons square building is very beautiful, the center of the square is the church, and there was a program here at the time, we happened to see a very beautiful show."Cusco2.1 km from downtownSquaresHighlights: In South American countries, almost every city has a central square, where the more important churches and some historical buildings in the city are gathered. People like to rest on the benches in the center of the square, chat with strangers, hello Birds, reading books, in a daze. A rainbow flag flies over the square. The rainbow flag here has nothing to do with the flag representing GayPride. This gorgeous rainbow flag is the city flag of Cusco.Show Less
- 6.04.5/512 Review"The Inca Museum is a museum we really want to visit during our trip to the ancient Inca country of Peru. Here, we can learn about the long civilization through cultural relics and historical materials, so that our next trip to Machu Picchu will look more direction."Cusco2.2 km from downtownMuseumsHighlights: The Inca Museum is a popular museum in Cusco. In addition to a large number of exhibits about textiles, porcelain, and the history of the Inca Inca, the eight mummies are very eye-catching.Show Less
- 5.34.7/526 Reviewbased on 856 reviews"Cusco is the former capital, and the art museum is very worth visiting a place, the long Inca ancient civilization, through the museum display, let us have a preliminary understanding, for Machu Picchu very helpful"Cusco2.2 km from downtownMuseumsHighlights: The museum is located on the northwest side of Plazoleta Nazarenas square, built in a Spanish colonial mansion with a courtyard capable of holding Inca ceremonies. The invaluable and staggering number of archaeological collections displayed here were once buried in the huge storage room of the MuseoLarco Museum in Lima.Show Less
- 4.94.6/512 ReviewFree"Visit the main attractions during the day, and we will walk to San Blas at night. A very lively place, it is also very sensational. The old house and different small shops are very interesting to walk slowly."Cusco1.9 km from downtownMarketsHistorical SitesHighlights: Walk eastward from Triunfo Street in the southeast corner of the square, walk for 10 minutes in the narrow stone alleys, climb a few steps, and look up to see San Blas built on a small hill. San Blas is a good place to spend a relaxing afternoon. Throw away the map and wander aimlessly in the alleys, and you will often get unexpected surprises.Show Less
- 4.34.9/512 ReviewFreebased on 118 reviews"San Francisco Square is a very beautiful square, the square is not very big, surrounded by some historical and colonial-era buildings, and if you walk around the square, you can also experience the streets of local life."Cusco2.1 km from downtownCity ParksSquares
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