Cusco

One block cut with twelve angles sits in the wall with joints too tight for a sheet of paper. No mortar was used; the stones were shaped to fit each other.

On the hill above the city, huge blocks are laid in a zigzag wall. One of them passes a hundred tonnes, and how they were moved is still argued.

A monastery was raised on the Inca sun temple, so two structures occupy one building. Earthquakes brought down the Spanish work while the Inca walls held.

Narrow lanes of workshops climb the hill in a series of steps. The altitude turns even a short slope into hard breathing, so it is taken slowly.

Juice stalls, herb sellers and potato traders each hold their own section. Local people arrive early for a bowl of broth.

Mineral layers show as coloured bands along a ridge at 5200m. The altitude is such that a same day return leaves many with a headache.

Circular terraces sink into the ground, and the temperature differs from ring to ring. The reading most widely accepted is that crops were tested here.

Three thousand pans step down a hillside, fed by an underground source. Families each hold their own pans, and that arrangement continues.

A market selling textiles fills the village below a ridge of ruins. The climb on foot runs ninety minutes, and a road goes there as well.

On the twenty fourth of June the sun ceremony is reenacted across three sites in the city. Seats are sold, and the standing spots along the route fill hours in advance.

The cathedral on the plaza's northeast side, raised over a levelled Inca palace. In Marcos Zapata's Last Supper, roast guinea pig sits on the table. Photography is banned inside, so people linger in front of the canvas instead.

The Jesuit church at the plaza's southeast corner, on the site of Inca ruler Huayna Capac's palace. It was rebuilt after the 1650 earthquake. Its showy facade reportedly caused a quarrel with the cathedral, and once floodlit it is the plaza's brightest face.

A colonial mansion on Plaza Nazarenas hung with several hundred works chosen from the Larco Museum's holdings. Pieces are shown as art rather than as archaeology. A glass-box restaurant sits in the courtyard, and people come just for dinner.

A museum run by San Antonio Abad University in the colonial mansion known as the Admiral's House. It holds Inca wooden queros, mummies and textiles. In the courtyard, Indigenous women sit at backstrap looms weaving.

A shrine carved into a single limestone outcrop on the hill above Sacsayhuaman. A zigzag channel on top is thought to have carried offerings. Duck into the cave beneath the rock to find a stone altar.

An Inca water shrine whose fitted walls still channel spring water along the original courses. Across the road stands the red-stone outpost of Puka Pukara. Many take a taxi up here and walk downhill via Qenqo and Sacsayhuaman.

A white Christ with open arms watches over Cusco from a rise beside Sacsayhuaman. Palestinian immigrants put it up in 1945 as thanks. The stairs from San Blas reach it in roughly 30 minutes, and lit at night it shows from the plaza.

A turquoise lake at roughly 4,200 m, right beneath the Humantay glacier. The trail up from Soraypampa is steep and needs some 90 minutes. Tour buses leave Cusco around 4 am for a full day out, and some riders hire a horse for the climb.

A four- to five-day walk over a pass beside snowy Salkantay, ending in the village below Machu Picchu. The high pass tops 4,600 m. Unlike the Inca Trail it needs no permit, so plans can firm up just days before setting out.

An Inca garden of terraces and stone channels in a valley southeast of Cusco. Spring water still drops from level to level along the canals. Tipon village below is known for oven-roast guinea pig, so lunch on the way back is the custom.

A city built by the Wari, who ruled the area before the Incas. Hundreds of stone-walled rooms run in a rigid grid that looks like a game board from above. Being next door to Tipon, it usually goes on the same itinerary.

The Church of San Pedro in a village some 40 km southeast of Cusco. Murals and gold leaf cover every wall and the ceiling, hence its nickname, the Andean Sistine Chapel. Outside it is plain adobe, so the contrast only hits once through the door.

A highland village above 3,700 m with Inca terraces and an adobe church. The church stands on an Inca palace and is worth it for the murals inside. Weaving workshops demonstrate dyeing yarn with plants and insects, and Sunday brings a market.

One of Cusco's big religious feasts, held on the Thursday 60 days after Easter. Fifteen saint and virgin statues are carried on litters from parish churches to the cathedral. Stalls around the plaza sell the cold platter chiriuchu, and queues are long.

An Inca-style bridge of twisted grass rope slung across an Apurimac River gorge. Every June nearby communities spend about three days weaving it anew, a custom now on UNESCO's intangible list. Allow 3 to 4 hours' driving from Cusco.