46 Best Sights in Cusco and the Sacred Valley, Peru

The former home of San Blas's most famous son, the 20th-century Peruvian religious artist Hilario Mendívil (1929–77), makes a good stop if you have an interest in Cusqeñan art and iconography. Legend has it that Mendívil saw llamas parading in the Corpus Christi procession as a child and later infused this image into his religious art, depicting all his figures with long, llama-like necks.

In the small gallery are the maguey-wood and rice-plaster sculptures of the Virgin with the elongated necks that were the artist's trademark.

There's also a shop selling Mendívil-style work.

Artifacts that Hiram Bingham unearthed during his 1911 "discovery" of Machu Picchu and brought back to Yale University resided with the university for a century. After a hotly contested custody battle, an agreement was reached between Peru and Yale, and the artifacts began to be returned to Peru in 2011. Some can now be seen on display at this small but fascinating museum housed in a colonial mansion built atop the palace of Tupac Yupanqui. While the artifacts are interesting, the real reason to go is for the video, which presents research findings on these pieces. If you have time, visit the museum before your trip to Machu Picchu for a deeper understanding of what is currently known, and still unknown, about this world wonder.

Take a refreshing turn back toward the present in this city of history. As is typically the case in Cusco, the museum is housed in a colonial mansion. But the art exhibits, which rotate constantly, display some of the best work that contemporary Peruvian artists have to offer.

The Old Town's distinctive appearance can be attributed to Inca organizational skills. They based their communities on the unit of the cancha, a walled city block, each with one entrance leading to an interior courtyard, surrounded by a collection of houses. The system is most obvious in the center of town around the main plaza. You'll find the most welcoming of these self-contained communities at Calle del Medio. A tourist information office on the Plaza de Armas can help direct you.

Inca Roca lived in the 13th or 14th century. Halfway along his palace's side wall, nestled amid other stones, is a famous 12-angled stone, an example of masterly Inca masonry. There's nothing sacred about the 12 angles: Inca masons were famous for incorporating stones with many more sides than 12 into their buildings. If you can't spot the famous stone from the crowds taking photos, ask one of the shopkeepers or the elaborately dressed Inca figures hanging out along the street to point it out. Around the corner is a series of stones on the wall that form the shapes of a puma and a serpent. Kids often hang out there and trace the forms for a small tip.

This 1607 colonial church in the ancient central plaza above the market was built on top of the limestone remains of an Inca palace, thought to be the country estate of the Inca Tupac Yupanqui, the son of Pachacutec. It's worth a visit if only to see the murals on the walls and ceiling.

For a reminder that civilizations existed in this region before the Incas, head to Pikillacta, a vast city of 700 buildings from the pre-Inca Wari culture, which flourished between AD 600 and 1000. Over a 2-km (1.25-mile) site you'll see what remains of what was once a vast walled city with enclosing walls reaching up to 7 meters (23 feet) in height and many two-story buildings, which were entered via ladders to doorways on the second floor. Little is known about the Wari culture, whose empire once stretched from near Cajamarca to the border of Tiahuanaco near Lake Titicaca. It's clear, however, that they had a genius for farming in a harsh environment and, like the Incas, built sophisticated urban centers such as Pikillacta (which means the "place of the flea"). At the thatch-roofed excavation sites, uncovered walls show the city's stones were once covered with plaster and whitewashed. A small museum at the entrance houses a smattering of artifacts collected during site excavation, along with a complete dinosaur skeleton. Across the road lies a beautiful lagoon, Lago de Lucre.

Most visitors only go to Ollantaytambo’s main ruins, but the 15th-century granary storages perched on the sacred mountain of Pinkuylluna, on the opposite side of town, are also interesting, and they afford awesome views. Best of all, visiting is free. The path here, which is steep in parts but can be managed in about 20 minutes, starts near the Apu Lodge in the old town. At the top are ruins of living quarters, which, it is believed, hosted privileged Inca women with textile weaving skills. The views from up at this level are stunning. The granaries, which are in poorer condition, are situated on the lower part of the mountain, connected by a well-marked circular hiking path.  

From the market area, drive or take a taxi for S/35 one way up the winding road to the Inca ruins of Pisac. Archaeologists originally thought the ruins were a fortress to defend against fierce Antis (jungle peoples), though there's little evidence that battles were fought here. Now it seems that Pisac was a bit of everything: citadel, religious site, observatory, residence, and, possibly, a refuge in times of siege. The complex also has a temple to the sun and an astronomical observatory, from which priests calculated the growing season each year, but this part of the site was closed in 2015 for safety reasons, and there is no set date to reopen. Narrow trails wind tortuously between and through solid rock. You may find yourself practically alone on the series of paths in the mountains that lead you among the ruins, through caves, and past the largest known Inca cemetery (the Inca buried their dead in tombs high on the cliffs). Just as spectacular as the site are the views from it.

At Rumicolca, an enormous, 12-meter-high (39-foot-high) gate dating from the Wari period stands a healthy walk uphill from the highway. The Inca enhanced the original construction of their predecessors, fortifying it with andesite stone and using the gate as a border checkpoint and customs post.

Ancient fountains preside over this tranquil and secluded spot, which is commonly known as "El Baño del Inca," or Inca's Bath. The name actually means "cavern lodge," and the site is a three-tiered huaca built of elaborate stonework over a natural spring, which is thought to have been used for ritual showers. Interpretations differ, but the site was likely a place where water, considered a source of life, was worshipped (or perhaps it was just a nice place to take a bath). The huaca is almost certain to have been the scene of sacred ablutions and purifying ceremonies for Inca rulers and royal women.

Only half a mile away from Qenko is this lesser-known Inca temple ruin that's dedicated to fertility (its main cave is believed to represent a woman's womb). One of the rocks on the exterior of the cave has a semicircular moon shape from which the temple takes its name. Even if it's not much visited by tourists, locals flock here for the beautiful views of Cusco and the mountains from its top, and it shouldn't be missed, especially given that admission is totally free. 

Close to the Plaza de Armas, the Plaza de San Francisco is a local hangout. There's not a lot to see in the plaza itself, but if you've wandered this way, the Templo de San Francisco church is interesting for its macabre sepulchers with arrangements of bones and skulls, some pinned to the wall to spell out morbid sayings. A small museum of religious art with paintings by Escuela Cusqueña artists Marcos Zapata and Diego Quispe Tito is in the church sacristy.

Austere from the outside, this incredible 1588 church takes the prize for most eccentric interior decoration. Thousands of mirrors cover the interior, competing with the gold-laminated altar for glittery prominence. Legend has it that the mirrors were placed inside in order to tempt locals into church. Built in old Inca style, using stone looted from Inca ruins, this is a great example of the lengths that the Spanish went to in order to attract Indigenous converts to the Catholic faith.

The little square in San Blas has a simple adobe church with one of the jewels of colonial art in the Americas—the pulpit of San Blas, an intricately carved, 17th-century, cedar pulpit that is arguably Latin America's most ornate. Tradition holds that the work was hewn from a single tree trunk, but experts now believe it was assembled from 1,200 individually carved pieces. Figures of Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Henry VIII—all opponents of Catholicism—as well as those representing the seven deadly sins are condemned for eternity to hold up the pulpit's base. The work is dominated by the triumphant figure of Christ. At his feet rests a human skull, not carved, but the real thing. It's thought to belong to Juan Tomás Tuyrutupac, the creator of the pulpit.

Everyone has heard that the Incas were good engineers, but for a real look at just how good they were at land and water management, head to Tipón. Twenty km (12 miles) or so south of Cusco, Tipón is a series of terraces, hidden from the valley below, crisscrossed by stone aqueducts and carved irrigation channels that edge up a narrow pass in the mountains. A spring fed the site and continually replenished a 900-cubic-meter (3,180-cubic-foot) reservoir that supplied water to crops growing on the terraces.

So superb was the technology that several of the terraces are still in use today and still supplied by the same watering system developed centuries ago.

The ruins of a stone temple of undetermined function guard the system, and higher up the mountain are terraces yet to be completely excavated. The rough dirt track that leads to the complex is not in the best of shape and requires some effort to navigate. If you visit without your own car, either walk up (about two hours each way), or take one of the taxis waiting at the turnoff from the main road.