{"id":3642,"date":"2015-09-23T09:02:10","date_gmt":"2015-09-23T08:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gloetzner.net\/wordpress\/?p=3642"},"modified":"2015-09-23T21:23:43","modified_gmt":"2015-09-23T20:23:43","slug":"2015-05-28-cusco-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gloetzner.net\/wordpress\/?p=3642","title":{"rendered":"2015-05-28: Cusco"},"content":{"rendered":"

History<\/h1>\n

Cusco was founded around 1200 AC by the Inca and used to be a capital of their empire\u00a0Tawantinsuyu. This changed in November 1533, when Pizzaro and his men took possession of the city.\u00a0 They admired the city for the beauty of its buildings, and the delicacy of the stone work. That would not prevent them from\u00a0 tearing down the buildings, and to reuse the stones for cathedrals, churches, monasteries and other buildings. Not many of the Inca constructions are\u00a0 left.<\/p>\n

In 1950, the city was struck by an earth quake that partly damaged the church and convent, Santo Domingo. This unveiled the long lost foundation of the Inca temple of the sun,\u00a0Qurikancha,\u00a0 beneath it.<\/p>\n

2 buildings of the temple of the sun were restored\u00a0 — not to its original beauty however: In Inca times, the walls and floors used to be covered with 700 golden plates. In the niches of the buildings, the Inca stored mummies of their deceased kings with golden masks.\u00a0 That must have been quite a sight. The conquistadores removed those, melted them, and shipped most of the gold to Spain. The gold left in Cusco that did not end up in the pockets of some conquistadores fuelled the Cusco baroque style, and was used to decorate the altars and the interior of the newly constructed churches.<\/p>\n

With the foundation of Lima in 1535 by Pizzaro, Cusco quickly lost much of its significance as a capital and cultural center. It slowly regained it partly, when Hiram Bingham discovered nearby Macchu Picchu in 1911, and it became the gateway for tourists on their way to the Inca city. Today, it is the capital of the Cusco province, and has close to 500.000 inhabitants.<\/p>\n

Sightseeing<\/h1>\n

Cusco is about 3400 meters above sea level. The air is pretty thin, which becomes quite noticeable. Going up a moderately sloped street or ascending a stair case can become physically exhausting. Gisela and to some extent Felix were\u00a0 incapacitated. So we took it easy.\u00a0 While Gisela and Felix mostly slept,\u00a0 I did some sight seeing, went around Plaza de Armas, and visited the cathedral with all its golden splendour. A couple of things stuck to my memory:<\/p>\n