The city of Cusco is one of the oldest in Peru and undoubtedly one of the most beautiful that this country offers to visit. In this post, we will show you the 10 most famous places, and at some of them you should definitely take a photo as proof that you were in this beautiful city.
The most important thing you will learn in this post, apart from the history of each place, is the location of each one via a link that will take you to Google Maps so that you can get there on your own.
Keep in mind that at the end of all the descriptions of the viewpoints in Cusco, we will leave you a Google Maps link so that you can locate yourself very easily and get there on your own.
Likewise, here we leave you a video so that you can have a visual perspective or save yourself the reading. Let’s begin:
1. San Pedro Market:
Your visit to the city of Cusco should undoubtedly begin at San Pedro Market, where you will find typical dishes from Cusco, handicrafts at good prices, and traditional breads called Chuta made with honey and wheat flour and baked in a wood-fired oven. Without a doubt, you absolutely have to try them.
Location: Click HERE and it will take you to Google Maps.
2. 7 Borreguitos Street:
Another must-see place in the city of Cusco is 7 Borreguitos Street. Of all of them, it is the most Instagrammable, colorful, and decorated with beautiful geraniums that make it unique in the entire city.
It is located just 5 blocks from the Main Square of the city of Cusco. You can visit this place at any time of the day, even at night, and take spectacular and artistic photos.
Location: Click HERE and it will take you to Google Maps.
2.1 The Sapantiana Aqueduct:
Just a few steps from 7 Borreguitos Street is another interesting place to take a photo called the Sapantiana Aqueduct. It was an important stream during the Inca and Viceroyalty periods that used to supply drinking water to the city. However, today it is only a tourist attraction that we recommend you visit and take with you as a memory.
Location: Click HERE and it will take you to Google Maps.
3. The 12-Angled Stone:
Another important point on this tour of the city of Cusco is undoubtedly the famous 12-Angled Stone, which is located on Hatun Rumioq Street (street of large stones).
Just 2 blocks from the Main Square of the city of Cusco is this Instagrammable spot, in the middle of Hatun Rumioq Street. As you walk through this narrow passage, you will notice that there is a construction made of large blocks of green stone (green diorite), with intricate shapes that resemble a kind of mosaic. Right in the middle of it is a particular rock that has 12 angles.
Carved by the Incas with the purpose of fitting the other blocks together into a single wall composed of polygonal stones, the 12-Angled Stone became so famous that you can even find it engraved on the bottle of Peru’s most delicious beer, Cuzqueña.
Location: Click HERE and it will take you to Google Maps.
4. San Cristóbal Viewpoint:
The city of Cusco has half a million inhabitants. A very interesting and pleasant perspective, especially if you are traveling as a couple, is to walk to the San Cristóbal Viewpoint. We recommend doing it in the afternoon so that you can admire the sunset over the city. Around 5:00 pm is when the landscape in general can be appreciated much better, since the artificial lights coexist with the last rays of the sun. Without a doubt, the perfect plan if you are traveling as a couple.
Location: Click HERE and it will take you to Google Maps.
5. The San Blas Neighborhood:
San Blas is known in the city of Cusco as the artisans’ neighborhood. Here you will find oil paintings, ceramics that recall Inca traditions, as well as religious imagery works representing saints, the Virgin Mary, the baby Jesus, and much, much more.
The family that stands out for its art is the Mendivil family. They have 2 workshops in this neighborhood, which are located near the 12-Angled Stone. Their work consists of creating religious imagery objects that represent different biblical passages, whose main artistic characteristic lies in the long-necked statues, an idea that blends Christian elements with South American camelids (llamas, alpacas, vicuñas).
Each image that the Mendivil family creates has the particularity of fine and exquisite detail and decoration, with elongated necks that simply make them unique in the world.
Location: Click HERE and it will take you to Google Maps.
6. A restaurant in the San Blas neighborhood with a view of the city:
Imagine having lunch or dinner with a beautiful view of the city of Cusco together with your favorite person or group of friends. Well, in the San Blas neighborhood it is possible. In particular, we recommend two restaurants that are located across from each other:
- Aura restaurant
- El Limbus bar
The view that these restaurants offer during sunset has no comparison with any other place. Without a doubt, this will make your experience in Cusco more pleasant.
Location: Click HERE and it will take you to Google Maps.
7. The Qosqo Center for Dance and Live Music:
Another must-see place in the city of Cusco is the Qosqo Center for Dance and Live Shows, where you will see the living and pure essence of Cusco’s culture.
Here, students, teachers, and people who love the traditional dances of Cusco come together and perform them professionally night after night in a show that begins at 7:00 p.m. and ends at 8:30 p.m.
Those who perform the music are professionals in folkloric music. Their repertoire includes songs that you may have heard on YouTube, such as El Cóndor Pasa, Valicha, Carnaval del Cusco, and much more.
If you love learning about and experiencing other cultures and different forms of knowledge, you definitely cannot miss this live show. That said, we recommend arriving 30 minutes before the show begins, since sometimes very long lines form or you may not find a seat.
Location: Click HERE and it will take you to Google Maps.
IMPORTANT, there are two ways to access this place:
First way:
Using the BTG (General Tourist Ticket), which costs 130.00 soles but allows you to enter 15 other destinations; watch the attached video for more details:
Second Way:
By purchasing an entrance ticket for 25.00 soles per person directly at the ticket office of the place. Buy this individual ticket if you do not wish to visit, or perhaps do not have time to visit, other destinations such as the city tour, Sacred Valley, Saqsayhuaman, Pisaq, Ollantaytambo, Moray, etc.
8. The Coricancha Temple of the Sun in the city of Cusco:
One of the most beautiful attractions offered by the city is undoubtedly the Temple of the Sun – Coricancha. You will like it very much. Cusco was considered by the Incas to be the center of the world, and the center of that center was this temple, dedicated to the main divinity, the Sun, or as it was called in the Quechua language:
Apu Kon Tiki Teqsi Viracocha Inti Pachaq Yachachiq
Which in Spanish means Lord God maker of the universe, Creator God, Sun, lord of time and space who knows everything.
A large part of the treasures, gold and silver idols of the cultures conquered by the Incas were stored in Coricancha. The worldview of that time in the city of Cusco and also throughout the vastness of the Inca Empire was that these idols had real representation and power of the gods of the cosmos and interceded between them over the forces of nature and men. Consequently, if a people was conquered, it meant that now the god of that culture owed obedience to the god of the conquerors, in this case, the Sun.
Upon the arrival of Francisco Pizarro, Diego de Almagro and the rest of their companions, this place became the center of disputes that, in the long run, would cause the Spaniards themselves to kill one another over the possession of the riches of this temple.
Some time later, around the year 1565, the first Christian order to arrive in Peru, the Dominicans, would take control and possession of the Inca construction and land and use it to begin the evangelization and Christianization of the members of the Inca royalty and nobility in the city of Cusco.
Today, Coricancha or the Inca Temple of the Sun is a museum whose entrance fee is 15.00 soles per person, which allows you to access the Inca construction and also the Santo Domingo art gallery. On the other hand, during Mass hours from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and in the evenings from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. every day, you can admire the interior architectural beauty of the Christian temple.
Without a doubt, behind the walls of the Inca Temple of the Sun, the city of Cusco holds a great deal of history waiting to be discovered. We recommend booking a tour or hiring a guide at the entrance so that you can learn much more about this beautiful place.
Location: Click HERE and it will take you to Google Maps.
9. The Cathedral of the city of Cusco:
Another of the must-see places you should visit is the Cathedral of the city of Cusco. Its construction began in 1574 and took 96 years to be completed. It is the 3rd largest cathedral of the Viceroyalty after those of Mexico and Lima, occupying a total area of 4,000 m².
Located in the heart of the city of Cusco, right in front of the fountain in the Main Square, it has a height of 18 meters, where the Renaissance style predominates with a touch of Baroque on its façade.
Without a doubt, it became an icon of popular Cusco culture from the time of its construction to the present day. Inca and Spanish labor worked together to build and decorate it over the centuries.
Inside the Cathedral of Cusco, you will find ancient paintings from the 1600s, 1700s and 1800s. You can appreciate the evolution of art and the adaptation of the local culture throughout those years.
Among the masterpieces that stand out are the painting of Saint Christopher, 9 meters high and 5 meters wide, the silver carriage, the one-ton silver altar, the statue of the dark-skinned Christ Jesus popularly known as the Lord of the Earthquakes, the Cathedral Choir carved in cedar, the pulpit, the painting of the Last Supper that features a guinea pig in the middle of it, etc., etc.
Without a doubt, it is something out of the ordinary and worth visiting. The entrance fee to the Cathedral of the city of Cusco costs 40.00 soles, and the visit can take between one hour and one and a half hours. We suggest hiring a guide when purchasing the ticket.
Location: Click HERE and it will take you to Google Maps.
10. The Inca Museum:
The city of Cusco is home to many historical treasures. Since the Incas were the empire that brought together and conquered, both through warfare and peacefully, the great majority of cultures that inhabited the Andes, the coast, and part of the jungle of South America, it came to occupy large percentages of the current territories of 5 countries.
At the Inca Museum in the city of Cusco, you will be able to see a summary of this entire series of conquered cultures, where you will learn about their ceramics, textiles, everyday utensils, etc.
Divided into two levels, on the first you will find the entire series of cultures from the coast and the Andes. On the second level, you will find everything related to the Inca culture, from its origins, the first human settlements in the city of Cusco, the vessels they used daily, tools for cutting and carving stone, 9 mummies, very fine textiles made from vicuña wool (the second finest fiber in the world), paintings of the Incas who allied themselves with the Spaniards, etc.
Setting modesty aside, it is the most complete museum you can find in the city of Cusco.
The entrance fee to the Inca Museum is 15.00 soles per person, and students with a university ID pay 10.00 soles.
Location: Click HERE and it will take you to Google Maps.
Conclusions:
The 10 places that we recommend you visit in this post if you are in the city of Cusco are considered by us, and by many travelers whom we take and recommend visiting them, to be the best in the city for spending a memorable vacation and, of course, living the GET IN PERU experience.
Thank you for reading this post. 😇