When to go

There are two main seasons in Cuzco - dry (roughly May to September) and wet (the rest of the time, but particularly December to March). The peak tourist season is from June to August, which coincides with the cooler dry season in the Andean highlands and summer vacation in North America and Europe. This is the best (and busiest) time to go trekking on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. Accomodation is also at its most crowded during this time, especially during the 10 days before Inti Raymi, on June 24, and during the Fiestas Patrias (National Independence Days) on July 28 and 29. During the rest of the year, it's always worth bargaining for better rates.

Weather

Cuzco's most distinct climatic feature is the pronounced contrast between the dry season, which lasts from about May to September, and the remaining wetter months of the year (with most rain falling between December and March). During the dry season, it's consistently sunny, with average daytime temperatures between 17 and 20°C (63-68°F), and cool to freezing nights, with the mercury hovering anywhere between a bone-tingling 1 and 7°C (34-45°F).

Whatever the time of year, note that you will likely experience extreme weather conditions on some sections of the Inca Trail.

Pre 20th Century History

Legend has it that in the 12th century, the first Inca, Manco Capac, the son of the sun, was charged by Inti, the sun god, to find qosq'o (the navel of the earth) - a spot where he could plunge a golden rod into the ground until it disappeared. When Manco discovered such a point, he founded the city that was to become the thriving capital of the western hemisphere's greatest empire.

The reigns of the first eight Incas spanned from the 12th century to the early 15th century (originally, 'Inca' meant 'king'). These Incas left few signs of their existence, though remains of some palaces can still be seen in Cuzco. The ninth Inca, Pachacutec, gave the empire its first bloody taste of conquest. Until his time, the Incas had dominated only a modest area near Cuzco. However, the Chanka tribe's growing thirst for expansion led them to Cuzco in 1438. Viracocha Inca fled, but his third son refused to give up, rallying an army and managing to rout the Chanka. He subsequently changed his name to Pachacutec, proclaimed himself Inca and embarked upon the first wave of Incan expansion that was to eventually create the Incan empire. Over the next 25 years, he bagged much of the central Andes, including the region between the two great lakes of Titicaca and Junín.

Huayna Capac, the 11th Inca, was the last to rule over a united empire. Nevertheless, he marched to the northernmost limits of his empire, along the present-day Ecuador-Colombia border, and fought a long series of campaigns. Around this time, he had a son, Atahualpa.

However, Europeans soon discovered the New World, and brought with them Old World diseases. Epidemics, including smallpox and the common cold, swept the region. Huayna Capac died in such an epidemic around 1525. Before his death, he divided his empire, giving the northern part to Atahualpa and the southern Cuzco area to another son, Huascar.

When the Spanish reached Cuzco, they began keeping chronicles of Inca history as related by the Incas themselves. The most famous of these accounts is The Royal Commentaries of the Incas . In 1532, a meeting was arranged between Fransisco Pizarro and Atahualpa: Atahualpa was captured by armed conquistadors, who also killed thousands of unarmed Indians.

Pizarro entered Cuzco in November 1533, by which time he had appointed Manco, a half-brother of Huascar, as a new puppet Inca. But after a few years, the puppet rebelled. In 1536, Manco Inca laid siege to Cuzco with an army estimated at over a hundred thousand. It was only a desperate battle at Sacsayhuamán that saved the Spanish from annihilation, forcing Manco to retreat to Ollantaytambo and then into the jungle.

Once Cuzco had been captured, the Spaniards turned their attention to the newly founded capital Lima. Cuzco's importance waned - the gold and silver was gone, and many Incan buildings were pulled down to accommodate churches and colonial houses.

Modern History

The battles of Peruvian Independence in the 1820s achieved what the Incan armies never could, but it was the descendants of the conquistadors who wrested power from Spain, and life in Cuzco continued much as before.

The rediscovery of Machu Picchu in 1911 affected Cuzco far more than any event since the arrival of the Spanish, changing the city from a provincial backwater to Peru's foremost tourist center.

The other major event of historical significance during the 20th century was the earthquake of 1950, which badly destroyed the Dominican Priory and Church of Santo Domingo - the city's Incan architecture, however, withstood the rattling.

Cuzco received a Unesco World Heritage Listing in 1983.