The gridded, cobblestoned town streets are the product of Inca city planning, dating back to the 1200s.
Although Peru has been a mining country since pre-Inca times, since 1992 output has tripled.
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Just outside of the city, explore the Inca ruins and the spectacular mountain fortress of Sacsayhuaman .
Sixteenth-century conquistadors cut a swath through ancient civilizations that had once rivaled those of the Aztec and Inca.
Two museums of treasures from the Pre-Inca Paracas culture, including mummies and feathered garments, lost their outer walls.
The purpose was to meet with the owner of local soft drink Inca Kola, which Coca-Cola wanted to acquire.
Machu Picchu and the Inca Trail in Peru similarly suffered from hordes of tourists, who brought in trash, pollution and damaged the sites.
It appears to date from the period of the two great Incas, Pachacutec Inca Yupanqui (1438-71) and Tupac Inca Yupanqui (1472-93).
Some of the best-kept mummies date back more than 500 years from the Inca civilization, which stretched from Peru to Chile.
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The most popular way to approach Machu Picchu is by hiking the famous but crowded Inca trail, but take it slow.
Most fly directly north to see Machu Picchu and the old Inca capital at Cusco, preferring to walk the more famous 45km Inca trail.
That is one of the obstacles to conserving Inca sites in Peru.
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The railway involves a natural monopoly: the only other way of getting to the ruins is a four-day hike along the Inca Trail.
Most tourists come to Peru to see Machu Picchu or other Inca ruins, with maybe a few Catholic churches thrown in for balance.
The Punta Union pass is only reachable by foot or mule along the spectacular 50km Santa Cruz trail, part of which is an ancient Inca road.
The main mode of transportation in this World Heritage site is currently a train and hiking the Inca Trail remains a popular, but regulated, option.
The construction of this amazing city, set out according to a very rigorous plan, comprises one of the most spectacular creations of the Inca Empire.
Peru is known for the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu, located in the Cusco region, which attract hundreds of thousands of international travelers each year.
Fortunately, the lack of a direct road from Cuzco to Machu Picchu has stood in the way of cars and trucks intruding on the Inca ruins.
In fact, the Inca were a bit like Mitt Romney's Bain Capital: They had a knack for taking control of long-established things and making them their own.
While having little impact in Lima, the strike was widely backed in southern towns, with protesters blocking roads and the railway to the Inca ruins at Machu Picchu.
She spoke a pre-Inca language, Aymara, and through a translator I learned that she was explaining her success at feeding her kids for the first time in her life.
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Start off high and cool in the city of Cuzco (UNESCO World Heritage Site), former capital of the ancient Inca Empire and today the undisputed archaeological king of the Americas.
Since he took office in January 2006 dressed in a red poncho at a ceremony at the ruins of Tiwanaku, a pre-Inca site he has transferred money and power to indigenous Bolivians.
It is said that conquistador Francisco Pizarro received a 22-ft. by 17-ft. room full of gold, and two of silver, in exchange for captured Inca ruler Atahualpa in 1532.
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Thanks to its strategic location between the Andes, the Atacama Desert and the Pacific Ocean, the Arica and Parinacota region was once the home of three major empires -- Tiwanacu, Inca and Spanish.
In 2013, I'm tackling Antarctica, the Inca Trail Marathon (labeled the "toughest marathon in the world"), Mongolia and New Zealand and will finish on the original course of Pheidippides in Athens in November.
Sadly, it was a feeling similar to poking your head through the sun gate at Machu Picchu and seeing the ancient ruins for the first time after four days of hiking the Inca Trail.
Cuzco and the old villages still retain traces of land occupation from the Inca Empire to preserve, in a more global manner, an archaeological heritage which has become susceptible to the effects of urbanization.
Spanish colonial paintings of the Last Supper in the cathedral in Cusco, the former Inca capital, and in Lima's San Francisco monastery portray Christ and his apostles feasting on a plate of roasted cuy.
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