Cusco

Cusco is a city in southeastern Peru sierra del sur, near the Huatanay Valley (Sacred Valley), of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region as well as the Cusco Province. The city has a population of about 300 000, tr

Cusco is a city in southeastern Peru sierra del sur, near the Huatanay Valley (Sacred Valley), of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region as well as the Cusco Province. The city has a population of about 300 000, triple the population it contained just 20 years ago. Alternate spellings include Qusqu (in old Quechua), Cusco, (after the Spanish arrival), and Qosqo with post-1987 Quechua orthography. According to the maps of the XVI, XVII and XVIII centuries, however, Cusco apparently became the preferred spelling in Spanish.

Cusco was the capital of Tahuantinsuyu (or Inca Empire). The city was planned to be shaped like a puma. The city had two sectors: the hurin and hanan, which were further divided to each encompass two of the four provinces, Chinchasuyu (NW), Antisuyu (NE), Cuntisuyu (SW), and Collasuyu (SE). A road led from each of these quarters to the corresponding quarter of the empire. Each local leader was required to build a house in the city and live part of the year in Cusco, but only in the quarter of Cusco that corresponded to the quarter of the empire he had territory in. After Pachacuti, when an Inca died his title went to one son and his property was given to a corporation controlled by his other relatives, so each title holder had to build a new house and add new lands to the empire, in order to own any home and the land his family needed to maintain it after his death. Andean Indians still abandon their homes and build new ones when they marry, even if no one remains in the house.