Cusco Was a Capital Long Before It Was a Machu Picchu Layover

Cusco has a scheduling problem that is entirely of other people's making. For most visitors it is the acclimatisation stop, a night or two at altitude before the train to Machu Picchu, treated as a logistical necessity rather than a destination in its own right. That does the city a disservice: Cusco was the capital of the Inca Empire for roughly three centuries, and the Spanish, when they arrived, did not flatten it so much as build on top of it, leaving a city where colonial churches and grand plazas sit directly on Inca foundations still visible today.

A cathedral built on a temple, a convent built on a temple

The Plaza de Armas, Cusco's grand colonial square, sits on the site of Huacaypata, the Inca empire's ceremonial centre, and the Cusco Cathedral behind it was raised using stone taken from the nearby Sacsayhuamán complex. A short walk away, the Santo Domingo convent was built directly over Qorikancha, the Temple of the Sun, once the most important religious site in the Inca world; parts of its curved Inca stonework still stand inside the colonial structure, a rare case of two very different architectural traditions occupying the same footprint.

Sacsayhuamán and the walls that started an obsession

Above the city, the Sacsayhuamán complex is where Cusco's famous stonework is easiest to appreciate at scale: enormous polygonal blocks, some weighing many tonnes, cut and fitted without mortar so precisely that a knife blade will not pass between them. It is the same masonry tradition, on a grander scale, that shows up throughout the old town's narrower streets.

San Blas and San Pedro, the neighbourhoods worth slowing down for

The San Blas district, a steep tangle of cobbled lanes above the centre, is Cusco's traditional artisan quarter, still home to working silversmiths and woodcarvers, while San Pedro Market gives a far more direct sense of daily Andean life than anything on the main tourist circuit, stalls of fruit, cheese and juice run largely for locals rather than visitors passing through.

Traveller tips

• Cusco sits above 3,400 metres; spend at least a day acclimatising before any strenuous activity, and drink plenty of water rather than alcohol on arrival.
• A Boleto Turístico (tourist ticket) covers entry to Sacsayhuamán and several other sites around the city; check current inclusions before buying, since the list of covered sites has changed over the years.
• Trains to Machu Picchu depart from Poroy, just outside Cusco, or from Ollantaytambo further down the Sacred Valley; confirm which station your booking uses.
• Evenings in the Plaza de Armas get cold quickly once the sun drops; a warm layer is worth carrying even on a sunny day.