Cusco is one of the largest departments in Peru. Its landscape is one of dramatic contrasts, where high mountain ranges combine with barren altiplano, rolling hills, deep canyons and valleys and lowland jungle

Cusco is one of the largest departments in Peru. Its landscape is one of dramatic contrasts, where high mountain ranges combine with barren altiplano, rolling hills, deep canyons and valleys and lowland jungle.

There are three mountain ranges in Cusco where adventure sports are practiced. They are Vilcabamba, which is defined by the catchment areas of the Urubamba and Apurimac rivers and includes the Salkantay massif (6272m) and Huayanay and Soray, the Vilcanota range, With Ausangate, the highest peak in the region (6378m), and the Urubamba chain, with the snowy peaks of Sawasiray (5800m), Veronica and Terijuay.

Contrasting with the high peaks, the northern and eastern areas of Cusco are characterised by cloud forest and humid tropical forest. It is here one finds the Amazonian Manu National Park, Peru's finest natural reserve and one of the best in the world.

The city of Cusco is also the gateway to the Tambopata National Reserve, which is reached after just a thirty minute flight to Puerto Maldonado followed by a three hour boat ride. Cusco's archaeological value goes beyond its Inca legacy. The first people settled here at least a thousand years before Christ, and are known today as the Marcavalle culture. They were followed by the emergence of the Chanapatas, contemporaries of thePucará in Puno, who disappeared sometime in the firstcentury after Christ, and the conquering Wari. After the Wari came the Killke and then the Incas.

Under the Incas, Cusco became the capital of the great empire of Tahuantinsuyo, founded, according to Inca legend, by the first two Incas, Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo between the 11th and 12th centuries. The vast Inca state was later conquered by the Spanish, who refounded the city of Cusco on the 24th March 1534. Cusco lies 3400 metres above sea level.

The majority of its streets are built from stone which dates from the time of the Incas and forms the foundations of many of the Spanish colonial houses.

For visitors, there are endless attractions in Cusco's historic centre, including the Plaza de Armas, the catedral, colonial churches, as well as museums like the archaeological museum, and the remnants of the city's Inca past can be seen every where.

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