Choquequirao another wonder of Cusco

28 March 2019 (3023 reads)

Another option to enjoy your visit to Peru is to know Choquequirao, located at the foot of the Salkantay deer in the district of Santa Teresa, La Convención Cusco, It was a cultural and religious center for the region. Presumably this citadel was used as a checkpoint to ensure access to the areas of Vilcabamba, which connected the jungle with other important centers such as Pisaq and Machu Picchu. It is also estimated that the citadel played an important role serving as a link between the Amazon rainforest and the imperial city of Cusco.

Choquequirao is considered one of the last strongholds of resistance and refuge of the Incas, who, by orders of Manco Inca, left the city of Cusco to shelter in the cities of the Vilcabamba region, when around 1535 Cusco was besieged by the Spanish. It was in this place (and in general throughout the valley of Vilcabamba) that Manco and the other Incas of Vilcabamba resisted the onslaught of the Spaniards, until the capture and execution of Tupac Amaru I in 1572.

The archaeological monuments of Choquequirao are made up of buildings and terraces distributed in different levels, from the lowest level Sunch'u Pata to the highest truncated top, which was leveled and surrounded with stones to form a platform with an approximate area of 150 square meter.

Choquequirao is known as the "sacred sister" of Machu Picchu because of the structural and architectural similarity with it. Recently, being partially excavated, it has awakened the interest of the Peruvian government to recover the complex even more and make it a more accessible alternative for tourists interested in learning more about the Inca culture.

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