Cusco
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The continent's archaeological capital and oldest continuously inhabited city, Cusco is now an important link in the South American travel network. Its legacy as the hub of the Inca Empire is readily apparent: Quechua-speaking Incan descendants crowd the Inca-built stone wall-lined city streets.
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[edit] History
[edit] Pre 20th Century
Cusco is a city so steeped in history, tradition and legend that it can be difficult to know where fact ends and myth begins. Legend has it that in the 12th century, the first Inca, Manco Capac the son of the sun, was charged by Inti the sun god to find 'qosq'o' or the navel of the earth - a spot where he could plunge a golden rod into the ground until it disappeared. When at last Manco discovered such a point, he founded the city that was to become the thriving capital of the western hemisphere's greatest empire.
Of course, the area was also occupied by other cultures for several centuries before the rise of the Incas, some of which were involved in the Wari expansion of the 8th and 9th centuries.
According to oral history passed down through the generations, the empire's main expansion occurred in the hundred years prior to the arrival of the conquistadors in 1533. When the Spanish, led by Francisco Pizarro, reached Cusco, they began keeping chronicles, including Inca history as related by the Incas themselves. The most famous of these accounts was The Royal Commentaries of the Incas, written by Garcilaso de la Vega, the son of an Inca princess and a Spanish conquistador, who lived in Cusco until the age of 21 before moving to Spain.
The reigns of the first eight Incas spanned the period from the 12th century to the early 15th century (originally the term Inca meant king, although subsequently it came to apply to the people as well). These Incas left few signs of their existence, though the remains of some of their palaces can still be seen in Cusco.
The ninth Inca, Pachacutec, gave the empire its first bloody taste of conquest. Until his time, the Incas had dominated but a modest area close to Cusco, though frequently skirmishing with other highland tribes. However, one such tribe was the Chanka, whose growing thirst for expansion led them to Cusco's doorstep in 1438. Viracocha Inca fled in the belief that his small empire was lost, but his third son refused to give up the fight. With the help of some of the older generals, he rallied the Inca army and, in a desperate final battle, during which legend claims the very boulders transformed themselves into warriors to fight alongside the Inca, he famously managed to rout the Chanka.
The victorious younger son changed his name to Pachacutec, proclaimed himself Inca and, buoyed by his victory over the Chanka, embarked upon the first wave of Incan expansion that was eventually to create the Inca Empire. During the next 25 years, he bagged much of the central Andes, including the region between the two great lakes of Titicaca and Junín.
Huayna Capac, the 11th Inca, was the last to rule over a united empire, an empire so big that it seemed to have little left to conquer. Nevertheless, Huayna Capac marched to the northernmost limits of his empire, along the present-day Ecuador-Colombia border and fought a long series of campaigns. Around this time he sired his son, Atahualpa, who was born of a Quitan mother.
But then something totally unexpected happened: Europeans discovered the New World, and brought with them various Old World diseases. Epidemics, including smallpox and the common cold, swept down from Central America and the Caribbean. Huayna Capac died in such an epidemic around 1525. Shortly before his death, he divided his empire, giving the northern part to Atahualpa and the southern Cusco area to another son, Huascar.
Meanwhile, Francisco Pizarro landed in northern Ecuador and marched southward in the wake of Atahualpa's conquests. Atahualpa himself had been too busy fighting a civil war to worry about a small band of foreigners, but by the autumn of 1532, a fateful meeting was arranged with the Spaniard in Cajamarca. This meeting was to radically change the course of South American history, as Atahualpa was ambushed by a few dozen armed conquistadors, who succeeded in capturing him, killing thousands of unarmed Indians and routing tens of thousands more.
Pizarro himself entered Cusco on November 8 1533, by which time Pizarro had appointed Manco, a half-brother of Huascar, as a new puppet Inca. But after a few years of keeping to heel, the puppet rebelled. In 1536 Manco Inca set out to drive the Spaniards from his empire, laying siege to Cusco with an army estimated at well over a hundred thousand. Indeed, it was only a desperate, last-ditch break-out and violent battle at Sacsayhuamán that saved the Spanish from complete annihilation. Manco was forced to retreat to Ollantaytambo and then into the jungle at Vilcabamba.
Once Cusco had been safely captured, looted and settled, the seafaring Spaniards turned their attentions to their newly founded capital Lima, and Cusco's importance waned, becoming just another quiet colonial town. All the gold and silver was gone, and many Inca buildings were pulled down to accommodate churches and colonial houses.
[edit] Modern History
Few events of historical significance have rocked Cusco since Spanish conquest, except for two earthquakes in 1650 and 1950, and an infamous Indian uprising led by Tupac Amaru II in 1780. His was the only late Indian revolt that came close to succeeding, but eventually he too was defeated by the Spaniards. The battles of Peruvian Independence in the 1820s achieved what the Inca armies never had, but it was the descendants of the conquistadors who wrested power from Spain, and life in Cusco continued much as before.
The rediscovery of Machu Picchu in 1911 affected Cusco far more than any event since the arrival of the Spanish, changing the city from provincial backwater to Peru's foremost tourist centre.
Cusco received a Unesco World Heritage Listing in 1983.
[edit] Recent History
Cusco's heavily renovated main stadium, Estadio Garcilaso de la Vega, bolstered the already substantial tourist population when it hosted a match of the Copa América 2004.
Besides sport and ancient civilisations, Cusco also entered the political arena with the 3rd South American Summit in 2004. This meeting brought together presidents or representatives from 12 South American nations who went on to sign the Cusco Declaration, which announced the foundation of the South American Community, whose aim is to aid the continent's internal trade relations by unifying two existing trade agreements and introducing a common currency.
[edit] Places to see
[edit] La Catedral
The cathedral is one of the city's greatest repositories of colonial art, especially from the Cusco school of painting, which produced striking combinations of 16th- and 17th-century European style with the imagination and customs of the Andean Indian artists. The most striking example is perhaps The Last Supper by Marcos Zapata.
Started in 1559 and taking almost a century to build, the cathedral is combined with the church of El Triunfo (1536) - the oldest church in Cusco - to its right, and the church of Jesús María (1733) positioned to its left. The main structure is on the site of Inca Viracocha's Palace and was built using blocks pilfered from the nearby Inca site of Sacsayhuamán.
The sacristy itself is covered with paintings of Cusco's bishops, starting with Vicente de Valverde, the friar who accompanied Pizarro during the conquest. The crucifixion at the back of the sacristy is attributed to the Flemish painter Van Dyck, though some guides claim it to be the work of the 17th-century Spaniard Alonso Cano.
Hours: Mon-Wed & Fri-Sat 10:00am-11:30am & 2:00pm-5:30pm, Thu 2:00pm-5:30pm, Sun 2:00pm-5:00pm
[edit] Museo de Arte Religioso
Originally the palace of the Inca Roca, the foundations of this museum were converted into the residence of the Marquis of Buenavista and then the archbishop's palace. The mansion now houses a fascinating religious art collection, notable for its period detail and its insight into the interaction of the conquistadors and the Indians.
There are some impressive ceilings and the curious Sala de Arzobispos (Room of Archbishops), filled with jovially grinning life-size models of the great men. The colonial-style tile work of the interior is not original and was replaced in the 1940s.
Hours: Mon-Sat 8:00am-11:30am & 3:00pm-5:30pm
[edit] Museo Inka
This museum rests on Inca foundations and was repaired after both the 1650 and 1950 earthquakes to maintain its position among Cusco's finest colonial houses. It is also the best museum for those interested in the Incas, boasting a fine collection of metal and gold work, jewellery, pottery, textiles, mummies and more.
Look for the massive stairway guarded by sculptures of mythical creatures, as well as a corner window column that looks like a statue of a bearded man from the inside but from the outside appears to be a naked woman. The facade is plateresque - an elaborately ornamented 16th-century Spanish style suggestive of silver plate. The ceilings are also ornate, and you get a good view from the windows.
Tel: 084 237 380 Hours: Mon-Fri 9:00am-5:00pm, Sat 9:00am-4:00pm
[edit] Accommodation
Include here hotels, hostels and/or Bed and Breakfast.