ARCHEOLOGY AND HISTORY

The first Settlers

In Cusco, the oldest settlers of the Pre-ceramic period correspond to collector cultures like Yauri and Chumbivilcas, with an approximated antiquity of 5 thousand years b.c. Later there has been evidences of shepherds in the zones of Canas and Chawaytiri and, also farmers in Qorqa that where found later.

In the formation period, when the man made his appearance in the Huatanay valley or Cusco valley, a first stage of the oldest sedentary occupation in Cusco Valley begins with Marcavalle culture, approximately at the year 1000 B.C., this first settlers were stablished at east of the present city, they had a population relatively organized of agriculturists and shepherds and also people who made ceramics. With them Cusco city life begun, and today is considered like “the oldest alive city in the American continent”, with a continuous occupation of about three thousand years to the present time.

In a second phase, around 800 B.C., it was developed the Chamepata culture (contemporary with Pucara culture in Puno). With the pass of the time the regional states emerged being one of the first ones the Qotakalli culture, approximately 600 A.C.

Probably near to the year 750 A.C the invasion of the Wari culture took place in the zone. After Wari, the region increased its potential and grew, first with the Killke culture and soon with the Lucre culture around 1000 A.C. Pikillacta city comes from the Wari times and fron the Killke times come Sacsayhuaman (Inca fortress) and the fundamentens of Cusco city.

The Incas and the Tahuantinsuyo Empire

What traditionally is known as the Incas civilization, empire or state is quite delayed in the Andean cultural development, and its initial phase begins approximately in the year 1200 A.C., and more or less in 1400 A.C., their expansive phase. It is difficult to assert categorically which cultures were the first founders or which would be a valid foundation of Cusco city. Some people say on the one hand, that could be the settlers of Marcavalle. Others also have considered that would be the Sawasiras, Antasayas and Wallas, tribes seated in the valley before the development of the Tahuantinsuyo. Another foundation would be the first Inca one Manco Capac; also it is adduced that Pachacútec, the ninth Inca, made another foundation.

Mythical origin of the Tahuantinsuyo 

There are many legends about the origins of the Tahuantinsuyo Empire. One of them tells that towards century XII the sovereign Manco Capac and his sister and wife Mama Ocllo emerged from waters of the Titicaca lake. They were demigods and children of their father Inti (the God Sun), with the mission of founding a new kingdom that improved the life conditions of the towns. Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo would have to walk until finding the the place on the earth where the carried great gold scepter sank. They walked north and arrived to Pacárec Tampu (Pacaritambo), where they rested in a small cave; at dawn they continued towards north until arriving to the Huanacaure Mountain (a mountain you can see from the present Cusco city) where the sceptre sank and the Cusco city was based.

The origin of the word Cusco comes from the quechua word Qosqo that means navel, that is why Cusco is also named as “the navel of the world”.

The truth is that the high plateau cultures, like Wari and Tiahuanaco, had a great influence of the Inca culture. The first settlers formed the Hanan Cusco, with agricultural technology and more developed architecture. Inhabitants of other regions, aware of the events, joined to them, and in this way the Tahuantisuyo Empire began, the great Inca empire, whose limits, after 14 Inca successors of real lineage and blood, made the Empire grow North until Pasto in Colombia, passing over a great part of Ecuador, and South until Maule river in Chile and the Pampas of Argentina including Bolivia. Cusco as the capital of the Empire reached its maximum splendor.

Cusco: Capital of the Inca Empire

Cusco was by nature a sacred place, home of Gods. Its old name indicates it: Cusco is equivalent in our language to “vital center” or “solar plexus”; in other words is the center of corporal energy where the feelings reside. Cusco is also sacred, because it is surrounded by sacred mountains: twelve principal mountains or apus, superior spirits, surround the scenery where the life of the most important pre-Columbian city of America take place.

Little is known from Cusco previous to the Spanish conqueer, is through the old traditions transmitted oraly from generation to generation that we know its history. It is say that the city of the Cusco was founded around the XI and XII centuries of our age by the legendary figure of the Inca Manco Capac. In fact, its exact origin is not known and is possible that it was founded many centuries before the Inca empire, but the Incas were who truely gave the city the importance that it had in old times. However, the foundation is dated in the year 1100 A.C and the definitive structure of the city, in the second third of the XV century (1466 to 1500 years A.C.). The initial nucleus seems to have been some stone and straw village on which the Incas raised the fabulous city. Historians attribute the establishment of quechuas in Cusco to Manco Capac in the year 1100; others, to the Ayar brothers. In any of both cases, the city was divided in two halves: Hanan (High) and Hurin (Low), until the Inca Pachacútec Yupanqui, son of Wiracocha and descendant of Inca Roca, rebuilt the city (1438), distributed it between ayllus related with the Incas and expelled to the rest of the residents, with which the city was the exclusive home of the Incas, its descendants and priests. For that reason city was a city exclusively for Inca Palaces: each Inca constructed his palace, of enormous dimensions, in which his descendants continued inhabiting.

The common persons resided in the extrawalls of the city, in the mountain slopes that surround the city, where they built their houses made of mud bricks. Also there was builded remarkable temples, of similar dimensions to the palaces, and powerful fortresses, that sometimes for its size constituted true big cities.

Inca organization and Topography

The Inca society was an admirable example of a social and politic organization due to its great knowledge in architecture, hydraulic engineering, medicine and agriculture. In the urban Cusco topography it was given a division between the high part (Hanan Cusco) and the low part (Hurin Cusco); in addition, another fourth-dimensional division took place, by cosmogonic and political interpretation. The Incas used a system of measures which helped them to organized their roads and towns; this system was based on ceques or imaginary lines that left from the sun temple, the Koricancha, near to the main square, Plaza the Armas (Spanish) or Aucaypata (quechua), they determined the place of establishment of huacas and towns, also the time and place of the ceremonies.

The Empires capital had three functions, reflected in the morphology of the city: religious center (sacred city), political center (capital city) and residential center. The panacas were located at the urban center, and from there to the periphery were being located according to indixes of wealth and poverty. The main squares of Cusco were places of development of the religious and civic celebrations; from those the street networks were born, that were straight, long and narrow. The central space of the city, occupied by the Aucaypata (main square), offered a series of constructions around it, like palaces and public buildings. From this place four roads departed and connected with the four regions of the Tawantinsuyo that in quechua means “four regions” (tawa: four; suyo: region). The Koricancha, or Temple of the Sun, kept the image of the Sun, made in gold. The magnificent technique of adjustment of voluminous rocks in the walls, perfectly assembled surprises us even today that we have all the technologies for construction, the catholic temple of Santo Domingo has as its bases these magnificent walls.

About the population that lived in the Cusco at the time of its greater apogee, calculations have been ventured. By the information provided by the colonial chroniclers, it is estimated that would be 200 thousand inhabitants.

The Incas

From the first Incas it is only know little more than names and legend. They are called “mythical Incas”. There is more information since the government of Pachacútec, “The one that removes the Earth” (1448-1471), the great conqueror, that, in addition, transformed Cusco, reconstructing it. Most of archaeological monuments known today in Cusco were his work. Pachacútec was, in addition, the one who defeated the Chancas.

His son Túpac Yupanqui was another great conqueror. His grandson Huayna Capac gave splendor to the empire; his great-grandchildren Huáscar and Atahualpa were involved in internal fights until the arrival of the Spaniards, who occupied the city in 1533, thanks to the support of the towns dominated by the Incas, which saw in the Spaniards his liberators, although finally they also were subjected by the Hispanic crown. With Pachacútec, Cusco was an admirable stone architecture city, with ample squares, great temples and palaces decorated with abundant gold pieces. Many of these colossal constructions remains for the eternity.

Derecha y Centro: Cerámica inca, Izquierda: Quero colonial

Raqchi

Quipu inca

Unku inca (Textil Inca)

Porras de piedra inca (Restos de las armas de los Incas)

Trabajo incaico en piedra. (Huchuy Qosqo)

The Conquer  and the Viceroyalty

Francisco Pizarro founded Cusco to the Spanish way in a Monday. March 23 of 1534, in the name of the king of Spain, with the name and title of “the very noble and great city of the Cusco”.

When constructing new buildings, the Spaniards respected the area, the shape and the orientation of the city, so that both architectonic styles fitted and coexisted in a special way, to such point that even today conserves Inca streets almost intact.

The Incas always fought to finish the Spanish dominion. In 1536, Manco Inca initiated the long and bloody war against the European invaders, surrounding the city by eight months. Finally, in 1572, after 36 years of war, the last emperor of the Incas dynasty, Túpac Amaru I, after his defeat and capture in Vilcabamba, was quartered, sectioning from him the head and the extremities pulled by horses in the main square of the city.

In 1650, the city was affected by a violent earthquake that brought almost all colonial construction down. Later, in 1780, the city again was troubled, but this time because of a social earthquake: the revolution of Túpac Amaru II (Jose Gabriel Condorcanqui, Thupa Amaro Inga), who fought against a set of measures of the Crown that considered unjust (injustas) and finished proposing the separation of Spain.

But he was betrayed, defeated and soon executed, like all his family and followers, in the main square of the city. This fact prolonged by several more decades the existence of the Peruvian viceroyalty.

Tupac Amaru I

The colonial Cusco

The Spanish Cusco has as its base the foundations of the Inca walls and the outline of its streets. Numerous buildings and churches were constructed and a flourishing school of art was based (XVII and XVIII centuries), represented by numerous painters and creators (paintings of the Cuzco School, púlpito of San Blas, Custodia of the Cathedral and La Merced churche, etc.).

The Andean and Hispanic cultural fusion has determined very special characteristic in the architecture and population of Cusco, city of incomparable beauty in the world, that conserves with pride its customs and traditions, simultaneously and progressively incorporates the modernity. We also need to add the privileged geographic scenery of beautiful landscapes where it has been developed.

Derecha: Templo colonial Raqchi, Izquierda: Iglesia colonial Quiquijana

The Emancipation and the Republic

Emancipation

Between 1814 and 1815, Mateo Pumacahua, cacique of Chinchero, that in its youth had fought against Túpac Amaru II, took up arms in Cusco, along with the Angulo brothers and other patriots, for the emancipation of Peru. They were defeated and later executed by the pre-hispanic army. In 1821, Peru obtained its independence of Spain at the end of a long, cruel and bloody process developed in all South America. The virreinal government maintained its authority from the Cusco city until 1824, when national independence was sealed with the battles of Junín and Ayacucho.

Republic

Cusco conserved certain influence during some decades after the conquer, later it experienced a long decline and abruptly was removed from the oblivion by the discovery of Machu Picchu, made in 1911 by Hiram Bingham. As a result of such finding, Peru returned to become an attention point for the entire world.

In 1933, the XXV Congress of Americanists, gathered in the La Plata city, Argentina, declared Cusco as the “Archaeological Capital of South America”.

In 1950, a great earthquake of 7° in the scale of Mercalli, hit the old capital of the Tahuantinsuyo, leaving only one fourth of its constructions habitable. In 1978, the VII Convention of Mayors of the Great Cities of the World, gathered in Milan, decided to declare Cusco as “cultural Patrimony of the world”. In Paris, December 9 of 1983, UNESCO declared Cusco as “cultural Patrimony of the humanity”. On December 22 of 1983, the Peruvian government, by the law 23765, declared the city as “tourist Capital of Peru” and “cultural Patrimony of the nation”.

At the present, Cusco is the center of the Inka Region, established at the end of the 90s decade and conformed by the departments of Apurímac, Cusco and Madre de Dios. The 1993 Political Constitution of Peru declared the city of the Cusco as its “historical capital”. Today, Cusco is a true tourist capital, place of beginning of all the excursions towards the Sacred Valley and access door to the Amazon (National Reserve of the Manu).