Huchuy Qosqo

About this place

Huchuy Qosqo is an Inca site high above the Sacred Valley in Peru, at about 3,650 m, roughly 3 km west of the town of Lamay and about 18 km in a straight line north of Cusco. Its Quechua name, given in the 20th century, means «Little Cusco». People lived here from around 1000 AD, and in the early 15th century it became a royal estate of the Inca ruler Viracocha, according to the Spanish chronicler Pedro de Cieza de León. After his son Pachacuti took power, the estate was expanded, and radiocarbon dates show building work between about 1420 and 1530. The Spanish later took it over and used it as a farm. The ruins spread across a wide terrace with sweeping views of the valley. There are buildings of stone and adobe, among them a great hall, or kallanka, about 40 m long, and an Inca irrigation channel lined with stone for about 800 m. Below the main site stand recently restored two-storey storehouses, where crops and dried meat were once kept. No paved road reaches the ruins, and most visitors arrive on foot: about three hours up steep switchbacks from Lamay, or a longer route of 4 to 6 hours from the village of Tauca that crosses a pass at about 4,400 m. A rough dirt track from Lamay also climbs to a viewpoint close to the site. Some companies offer two-day treks or trips on horseback.