The city of Cuzco, or Cusco according to the official spelling, is located in the southwest of Peru, in the Andes Mountains. It is declared as the historic capital of Peru and is the seventh most populated city in the country, with about 406,000 inhabitants. It is also one of the cities that generates more tourist attraction per year in the country.
While you are traveling to Peru you may need to keep communication or a translation app. That’s why you may need to use one of our mobile phone plans for tourists to have a tourist sim card. In order to make a nice trip here in PeruSIM. Here we show you a little bit about the history of Cusco.
History of Cuzco, the origins
The founding origins of the city of Cuzco are mythical, as is the case with all great ancient cities.
In the 1st millennium B.C. the region of Peru was a territory populated by a multitude of cultures, which, as their ceramic productions show, shared substantial differentiating features.
The myth of the foundation of Cuzco, of which there are several versions, attributes the original occupation by divine design of Inti, the sun god, to the great warrior Manco Capac and his family, in a remote time whose exact date is still not well known.
The first peoples settled in Cuzco assimilated, if not subdued, the local cultures and soon began a process of expansion that would lead the Inca territory to form an empire of more than 600,000 square kilometers, whose capital was precisely the city of Cuzco.
They had a dualistic conception of the world and, as such, divided the territory of Cuzco into two regions, the highlands and lowlands, Hanan and Hurin.
Cuzco, cradle of the Incas
The descendants of Manco Capac formed around 1,200, according to the vestiges, a kind of chiefdom or minor lordship that was acquiring with the passage of time a great importance and whose inhabitants, creators of the Killke ceramic culture, at some point took the name of Incas.
The Incas had a very hierarchical political and social organization that managed to erect a completely organized capital, whose grid plan could remind any Roman city.
From that legendary Manco Capac and his family, a whole series of kings or Incas followed, who ended up being deified, to the point that they could not touch the ground or leave the palace except on religious festivals to avoid commoner contamination.
The nerve center of the Empire was Cuzco itself. Between 1,200 and 1,400 the foundations of the political and religious organization were laid.
It was not without reason that the Incas called their capital Qosqo, which in Quechua, the language and writing they developed, means navel, center.
Under the reign of Pachacútec, from 1438 to 1463, the Empire was consolidated as such. He initiated a policy of territorial extension that transformed the city from a curacazgo (process of political development) to a great expanding power, subduing surrounding tribes such as the Chancas and annexing their territories.
The original layout of the city was reorganized, giving it a plume shape, and a plan of remodeling and public works was put in place that would give the city the grandeur with which the Spaniards found it upon their arrival in the 16th century.
At the same time, agricultural constructions were promoted, neighborhoods and houses were renovated and public and religious buildings were constructed.
Cuzco thus became a powerful urban center bounded by the surrounding rivers (Saphi and Tullumallo) and from which roads led to other nearby settlements, favoring commercial relations and exchanges with other Peruvian towns.
Imperial Cuzco
Imperial Cuzco consisted of a great urban heart, courtly and palatial, reserved for a few privileged nobles and priests, and a series of what today we would call satellite cities or neighborhoods reserved for popular groups, connected to each other, in which agricultural and livestock activity was also developed.
The Spanish conquest
The Inca splendor in the orbit of Cuzco would end in 1533 with the conquest of Pizarro, who in March of the following year refounded the city with Hispanic sign.
It is estimated that at that time the spelling of Quechua was changed to “Cuzco” to adapt it to Spanish phonetics.
The Spaniards did not modify much the urban environment of the city: the original indigenous constructions did not facilitate the manufacture of numerous buildings, reason why in many cases the Spanish houses were built on Iinca buildings.
With the Republic and the creation of the Department of Cuzco, the city became the capital of the region and enjoyed importance within the administrative organization of the country.
Cuzco today
Throughout the 20th century, although it had to suffer more natural catastrophes such as an earthquake in 1950, it would receive historical, cultural and touristic recognition.
Expeditions, indigenous protection policies and legislation in favor of cultural development and heritage conservation were promoted, and even modernization in every sense, development that has led it to be today, a city where commerce flows.
In 1933 it was declared “Archaeological Capital of South America” and in 1938, UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site.
The ruins of Machu Picchu
Currently, the city is one of the most visited tourist destinations in Peru, thanks to the interest attracted by the relationship of its past with the splendor and attractiveness of the Inca Empire and, in general, its eventful history.
Near the city are the ruins of Machu Picchu, a great tourist attraction, in a mountainous area that rises almost 2,500 meters above sea level.
In 1911, the expeditions of Hiram Bingham gave fame and recognition to the site and had a great reception in the scientific and archaeological world.Finally, we know that you have to keep communication with your relatives and friends, that you need to be able to orient yourself in new cities, that you might need help with translation and that you might need to search for restaurants or hotels. That’s why with PeruSIM you can buy a SIM card including the data plan of your need without having to worry about high roaming costs.