The Cusco Valley and the Incas are synonymous in most people's minds, but the area was populated well before they arrived on the scene and they simply built their empire on the toil and ingenuity of generations of previous cultures. The Killki culture, for instance, whose members learned to work the hard diorite and andesite stones that abound here and, although primarily agriculturists, built stone structures, dominated the scene around 700-800 AD. Some of these structures still survive, while others were incorporated into later Inca constructions - the sun temple of Koricancha, for example, seems to have been built on the foundations a Killki sun temple. Early Inca pots, too, are stylistically close to Killki-produced items, while classical Inca pots demonstrate strong similarities to ceramics produced around 1000 AD by the Lucre culture, whose main site was at Choquepugio, 35km from modern Cusco. The Lucre also used significant amounts of diorite stone in their constructions and, like the Incas later, utilized such boulders in multi-angular, earthquake-proof formations. Later Inca pottery shows a strong Wari influence.
According to Inca legend, however, Cusco was founded by Manco Capac and his sister Mama Occlo around 1200 AD. Over the next two hundred years the valley was home to the Inca tribe, one of many localized warlike groups then dominating the Peruvian sierra. A series of chiefs led the tribe after Manco Capac, the eighth one being Viracocha Inca , but it wasn't until Viracocha's son Pachacuti assumed power in 1438 that Cusco became the centre of an expanding empire. As Pachacuti pushed the frontier of Inca territory outwards, so he also master-minded the design of imperial Cusco, canalizing the Saphi and the Tullumayo, two rivers that ran down the valley, and building the centre of the city between them. Cusco's city plan was conceived in the form of a puma, a sacred animal: Sacsayhuaman , an important ritual centre that doubled up as a fortified area for the town's people to retreat to when threatened, is the jagged, tooth-packed head; Pumacchupan , the sacred cat's tail, lies at the point where the city's two main rivers merge; while between these two sites lies Koricancha , the Temple of the Sun, reproductive centre of the Inca universe, the loins of this sacred beast. The heart of the puma, was Huacapata , a ceremonial square approximating in both size and position to the modern Plaza de Armas. Four main roads radiated from the square, one to each corner of the empire. Pachacuti's palace was built on one corner of Huacapata, while his grandson, Huayna Capac, situated his palace in the opposite corner, next to the cloisters of the Temple of the Sun Virgins. The overall achievement was remarkable, a planned city without rival at the centre of a huge empire, and in building their capital the Incas endowed Cusco with some of its finest structures. All important buildings were constructed from hard volcanic rock and streets ran straight and narrow, with stone channels to drain off the heavy rains. Hotels in Cusco |
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