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Cuzco  Located
in the heart of The Sacred Valley of the Incas and at an elevation
of 11,000 feet above sea level, Cuzco was the capital of the
vast Inca Empire. The Incas considered it to be "the
navel of the world" and all the principal idols and temples were located there. The city suffered a sorry fate during the years of the Conquest: stripped for Atahualpa's ransom, looted by the Spanish and finally burnt by the Incas during the Great Rebellion of 1536.Modern-day Cuzco is far from being a "ruin" but is included here due to its historical importance and central location for any travellers to Peru. The surrounding valley contains numerous important and magnificent Inca monuments, including Sacsahuaman, Pisac and Ollytantambo.  The
city of Cuzco was designed by the 9th Inca King, Pachacuti Inca
Yupanque or "Earthshaker", in the shape of a puma, a sacred beast to the Indians. The head of the puma is represented by the mighty fortress of Sacsahuaman, the heart by the main square of Huacaypata and the tail by the convergence of the Huatanay and Tullumayo rivers.The main square of Cuzco, Huacaypata, has remained in the same location since the earliest days of the Incas. Before the arrival of the Spanish it was twice the size, covered with a fine gravel and had four main roads extending out to the four quarters, or "suyos", of the Empire.
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The first Spanish visitors to Cuzco were overwhelmed by its feats of engineering and vast quantities of treasure. Many of the Inca buildings still have niches or holes that were originally used to fix solid plates of gold - these were later looted by the Spanish and melted down.
