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The city is the seventh most populous in Peru; in 2017, it had a population of 428,450. Its elevation is around 3,400 m (11,200 ft). The city was the capital of the Inca Empire until the 16th-century Spanish conquest. In 1983, Cusco was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO with the title "City of Cusco".
Their nature and complexity of the sites vary from small single-featured sites such as pyramids to entire cities, such as Chan Chan and Machu Picchu. Preservation and investigation of these sites are controlled mainly by the Culture Ministry (MINCUL) ( Spanish : Ministerio de Cultura (Perú) [ 2 ] ).
Machu Picchu [a] is a 15th-century Inca citadel located in the Eastern Cordillera of southern Peru on a mountain ridge at 2,430 meters (7,970 ft). [9] Often referred to as the "Lost City of the Incas", [10] it is the most familiar icon of the Inca Empire.
The Inca referred to their empire as Tawantinsuyu, [14] "the suyu of four [parts]". In Quechua, tawa is four and -ntin is a suffix naming a group, so that a tawantin is a quartet, a group of four things taken together, in this case the four suyu ("regions" or "provinces") whose corners met at the capital.
"remembered that his father Pachacuti had called city of Cuzco the lion city. He said that the tail was where the two rivers unite which flow through it, that the body was the great square and the houses round it, and that the head was wanting." The Inca decided the "best head would be to make a fortress on a high plateau to the north of the city."
Vilcabamba or Espiritu Pampa is located near the Chontabamba River, a tributary of the Urubamba River. [9] The Inca capital has often been referred to as Vilcabamba the Old to distinguish it from the town of Vilcabamba the New, of Spanish origin and 35 kilometres (22 miles) in straight-line distance southwest of Old Vilcabamba. [10] [11]
The Kingdom of Cusco (sometimes spelled Cuzco and in Quechua Qosqo or Qusqu), also called the Cusco confederation, [2] was a small kingdom based in the Andean city of Cusco that began as a small city-state founded by the Incas around the start of 13th century.
One road, the Longitudinal Andean Inca Road (Spanish: Camino Inca Longidunal Andino), [26] went high in the Andes through the valley heads where the valleys were less deep. [9] The other one followed coastal plains. [9] View of an Inca archaeological site at Cerro El Plomo, a mountain and Inca ceremonial centre in Central Chile.