Cuzco being the heart of the Incan Empire, its region has many prestigious sites. At about fifteen kilometers from the capital, and six hundred meters downwards lies the Sacred Valley.

The valley of the Urubamba River was a sacred place to the Incas. Its proliferation of springs, streams and wildlife of all kinds showed the Incas how special this place was to Pachamama, or Mother Earth and the Urubamba itself was held to be an earthly representation of the Milky Way, symbolizing the flow of life from the heavens to earth.
This is where the Incas built many of their famous towns such as Pisac and Ollantaytambo. This was the heart of the Inca Empire in economic terms as well. The sacred valley was the Incas’ breadbasket, providing maize and other crops to feed Cuzco and an ever-growing empire.
The sacred valley is probably the best place to see how the Incas worked in concert with the natural world to develop complex irrigation and agricultural systems that could actually add to the incredible beauty of the landscape around them.

The Sacred Valley is a place of outstanding natural beauty, as Pisac illustrates it.
Here merchants offer for sale all sorts of handicrafts, the most important of which are the textiles and ceramic goods such as ceremonial goblets called "Q’eros", plates, ashtrays, necklace and replicas of pre-Hispanic pottery. There are also ponchos, sweaters and bags. The handicrafts fairs are held every Thursday and Sunday in the main square of Pisac, as well as the Indian market, which is visited by inhabitants from the various native communities to stock up on supplies or sell their products. 0n Sundays, there is also the traditional Mass held in Quechua, which is attended by the Varayoc or village leaders from the surrounding communities.
In the upper part of the city are the remains of this pre-Columbian settlement located a few kilometers from the mestizo town. It takes up an entire mountain made up of different neighborhood or squares, the main one being Intiwatana, which is admired for the architectural skill with which its constructions were built. At the same time, the pre-Hispanic cemetery is also of great interest as it is the largest found in this part of the continent.
There are thousands of tombs, some of them looted. The complex is also famous for the colossal terraces that circle the mountains and the fabulous watchtowers, which were used as observation points as well as for control and military defense.

Forty kilometers from Cuzco is the town of Maras, found in the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Since pre-Inca times, salt has been obtained in Maras by evaporating salty water (provided by a nearby subterranean stream) in the sun, leaving the salt behind. In the mines there are thousands of salt-pools; when light is reflected there the effect is said to be quite stunning.

Further along the Sacred Valley lies the town of Ollantaytambo. Legend has it that the name comes from an Inca chieftain named Ollantay who controlled the fortress here. He fell in love with the daughter of the Inca Pachacutec - a strict no-no in Inca society - and they ran off together to the fortress at Ollantaytambo, which was then besieged by her vengeful father. Ollantay’s forces were defeated by Pachacutec but the Inca let both of them live as he recognized the beauty of their love.
The fortress itself is highly impressive even though it was still under construction at the time of the conquest and so remains unfinished. Even more impressively, the fortress at Ollantaytambo was the only site to successfully withstand Spanish attack in the whole of the Americas!
The site also contains an Inca temple, some intact terracing and various funeral monuments but apart from the fortress the real treat is the town of Ollantaytambo itself. Almost all the buildings are built on top of Inca foundations and so it is the only surviving example of Inca town planning.
The town is divided up into blocks, which each have a single doorway into a central courtyard, with all the houses built around that courtyard.

Here ends the Sacred Valley, but the River Urubamba continues its course towards THE emblematic site of Peru, the Machu Picchu.

Tourist interests

Village of Chinchero (3772 m.a.s.l.

A must see is the Colonial church where beautiful paintings of the Cuzco School are kept. Every Sunday, the farmers and businessmen gather to exchange their products in a fair where they still barter. There are important archeological vestiges in the area.

The salt mines of Maras.

Also calledi Salinas de Maras. Their exploitation dates from the times of Tahuantinsuyo. The salt water seeping from the ground – from a well called "Qoripujio"- is canalized towards basins in which, with the effect of the sun, it evaporates leaving the salt on the surface which is then treated and sold on the local market. The view of about three thousand basins is spectacular. The inhabitants share their ancestral techniques with visitors and even have them help with collecting the salt!

The religious nucleus of Písac.

This archaeological site, considered one of the most important in Cuzco, lies near the town of Písac, of colonial origin, and which hosts a Sunday fair that draws thousands of visitors and villagers from remote highland villages, clad in colorful traditional dress. Holidays feature the procession of the varayocs or town mayors, who at around 9:30 am head to church to attend the traditional Mass held in Quechua, the Inca language.

Moray Archeological Complex

There are four slightly elliptical agricultural terraces, that the people call muyus. The largest structure is 45 meters / 148 feet deep, and the average height of each terrace is 2 meters / 3 feet. Many think that this place was an important agricultural experimentation center for the Incas. Through the use of concentric terraces and because the temperature is different in each of their level, all the ecological tiers found in the confines of the Tahuantinsuyo Empire would have been reproduced in this complex.

Awanakancha South American Camelids Theme Park

Camelids such as, vicuñas, and alpacas are to be seen there in their native environment. They also demonstrate how to make clothing from the animal’s wool fibers. In addition, you can see native flowers and some Inca-built agricultural terraces.