Trip plan:
The Belmond Andean Explorer welcomes you on board in Puno, a charming town on Lake Titicaca. Guests board the luxury train in the afternoon and can take the opportunity to relax in their private, exclusive, plush compartment. They will soon be invited to lunch in one of two refined dining cars. A delicious meal with its roots in refined Andean cuisine awaits them here.
After lunch, guests will hike among the sharp peaks of the picturesque La Raya mountain range, an area of rugged and untamed beauty. Upon return, tea is served and guests are free to spend their free time as the luxury Belmond Andean Explorer train heads towards the Sacred Valley of the Incas and Cuzco. Participants can enjoy the views from the observation car or meet other travelers over a cocktail in the lounge.
Guests wake up to a delicious breakfast - the perfect start to a new, intense day. While dining, they can admire the beautiful views as the train heads to Cuzco. This is where your luxury trip aboard the Belmond Andean Express ends. The guests are said goodbye by the train crew. If you have time, we recommend exploring Cusco on your own.
Cuzco is located in the southern part of Peru, at an altitude of 3326 m above sea level. The city was founded by the first Inca ruler, Manco Capac, in the 1533th century. The name Cuzco in Quechua means the Navel of the World - during the times of the Inca Empire, the capital of the country was located here. It was captured in 1536 by Francisco Pizarro's troops. During the Manco Inca uprising in XNUMX, the city was burned down, and then the Spaniards built their city in its place. Fortunately, the remains of some buildings have been preserved from the Inca times.
In the central part of the city there was a square measuring 550 x 250 m. Around the square there was the palace of the Inca ruler, called Ccsana, the House of the Virgins of the Sun Acllas (the monastery of St. Catherine was founded on its walls) and the palace of Huayna Capaca Amarucancha. The dominant structure was the Coricancha Sun Temple. A Dominican monastery was built on its ruins. The Temple of the Sun had one of the walls covered with gold tiles, and inside there was a solar disc, discovered by the Spanish in 1571. In the ruins of the palace belonging to Inca Roca, there is a 12-sided stone, perfectly fitted into the wall.
Near Cuzco, on the slopes of Sacsayhuamán, a fortress with a triple, zigzag line of defensive walls was built. The plan of the fortress resembles the mouth of a puma, and the 22 zigzags of the walls are its teeth. Huge boulders were used to build the walls, delivered from quarries 15 km away and then machined to fit perfectly without the use of mortar. The largest stone used has dimensions of 9 x 5 x 4 m and its weight is approximately 350 tons. It is not clear how the Incas transported these stones, because they did not know either wheels or rollers. It is also not understood how they processed them with the stone tools available to them, the hardness of which was not sufficient to process granite. A modern observer is also amazed by the precision of fitting together individual stone elements. Inside the fortress, a circular tower was built, with an internal courtyard, surrounded by a double wall. In 1983, the site was included, along with the historic city of Cuzco, on the UNESCO World Heritage List. In 2008, archaeologists discovered the ruins of a temple near Sacsayhuamán, dating back to pre-Inca times (900-1200 AD).
Other monuments located near Cuzco include the remains of the Tambomachay buildings. It is a building composed of two terraces made of smoothed stone blocks. Water with healing properties constantly flows down them. This place, most likely associated with the cult of water, is called the Inca Bathing Area.
The nearby Kenko rock sanctuary served as an astronomical observatory. It is a round, stone building built around a megalith called intihuatana, meaning "the place where the sun stops." The complex of buildings in Cuzco also includes the Virakoczy Temple, located in the village of Cacha. It is the largest Inca temple with a rectangular plan measuring 100 x 26,5 m.
The monuments remaining after the Spanish conquistadores include numerous churches and monasteries, including: the Jesuit church of La Compañia de Jesús from 1571, built on the foundations of the palace of the Inca ruler, Huayna Kapaka, the cathedral from 1559 and the church of El Triunfo from 1536 .
