VALLE SAGRADO

History of the City

The Sacred Valley of the Inkas is one of the most important place located one hour driving from Cusco, it was so sacred for Inkas because has lot of farmland, archeological sites, amazing mountains, the grand river.  The main products Inkas cultivated were corn, potatoes, quinoa, and coca leaves considered a sacred plant, that’s why they built important places like  Chinchero, Pisaq, Ollantaytambo and Machupicchu by the jungle, through the whole Valle is a river called Vilcanota, the one that Inkas considered as the terrestrial representation of the milky way, also we can observe snow cap mountains such , Pitusiray, Sawasiray, Chicon, Pumawanka, Wakaywillka, Salkantay, sacred mountains and God protectors for Inkas, and still nowadays the communities respect all of them. To visit all those places we have to do it by our private transportation because they are far from each other, and our professional local guide will explain all the mysteries and enigmas of each  place and to visit them there is an entrance fee which is called boleto turístico (mandatory to buy).

All the places you can visit in the Sacred Valley with boleto turístico are: Chinchero, Moray, Pisaq, and Ollantaytambo.

ONE DAY TOUR

 PISAQ – OLLANTAYTAMBO – CHINCHERO

Pisaq

Pisaq Archeological site is located in the Sacred Valley of the Inkas about 30 km (18.6 miles) from Cusco city and at 2972 meter (9759 feet) above sea level, on the way the scenery it’s amazing there are lookouts, Pisaq was built for agriculture to cultivate corn, also has its own dwelling sector, militar area and astronomical place with the famous agricultural sundial (Intihuatana), it’s the only place that has more than 3000 thumbs.

Ollantaytambo

Ollantaytambo is around 72 km (44.7 miles) from Cusco, at  2792 meters (9160 feet) above sea level, the name comes from Ollantay dramatics wrote in 1776 for the locals evangelization, the place was Manco Inka headquarter in 1536 when he organized the rebellion against spaniards, in 1537 was a big battle; it has lot of terraces for agriculture, temples for Inkas divinities, Water fountains for cleansing, and the famous face of Tunupa  in the mountain that was considered the main God of Ollantaytambo.

Chinchero

Chicnhero it’s in the upper  of the Sacred Valley about 28 km (17.3 miles) from Cusco at 3750 meter (12300 feet) above sea level, it was built by Inka Tupaq Yupanqui, with a big plaza and lot of granaries, when spaniards arrived to Cusco, one of the Inkas descendant Manco Inka organized a rebellion, he burned that place against spaniards to don’t let them  any reorganization of provisions. Whey Viceroy Toledo visited Chinchero he ordered to built a catholic chunche on top of Inkas constructions, then in 1780 when Tupac Amaru organized rebellion against spanish kind Mateo Pumacahua Cacique from Chinchero quarrel in favor of Spanish kind. Mateo Pumacahua´s triumph is painted at the main entrance of the catholic church.

HALF DAY TOUR

Early in the morning we pick you up from your hotel and we drive by our private transportation to visit Maras community and walk a little bit on the colonial streets we will see the nice carving entrances of their house with spaniards shields, then we keep going by our transport to visit the concentric terraces of Moray where our professional tour guide will explain and walk around them, after we drive to the Salt mines, and observe the amazing hand work of locals to harvest this mineral, in the afternoon we take you back to your hotel.

HALF DAY TOUR MORAY – MARAS 

PRICE:  94 USD

per person minimun 2 person

Maras

The  salt mine of Maras its located at 3000 meter (9842 feet) above sea level, this natural spring with salty water comes from the mountain all year around and since ancient times they use to trade with some other products ush as corn, potatoes, coca leaves, also they used for dehydrated the llama meat, and for embalming too, and nowadays the locals export, the flower of salt, pink salt and medicinal salt.

Moray

Moray its located at 3500 meters (11482 feet) above sea level, and at 38 km (23.6 miles) from Cusco, Moray is a building with concentric terraces that looks like amphitheater, its very amazing the precise shape of them, we believe our ancestors use to make agriculture experiment at different altitudes, all the terraces gives a different microclimate, there are 4 sinkholes where we can observe with awesome landscape.

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