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Roots Earth in Cusco: audio stories about 48 places

Roots Earth has audio stories about 48 places in Cusco, Peru, in Latin America. The Cusco stories are in all seven Roots Earth languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The app needs no account: open Cusco, pick a place on the city's map of places and play. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection. The stories are written by local people.

The 48 places are listed below in the order the app shows them, and again further down with their coordinates. The lists were taken from the Roots Earth catalogue on 15 September 2026.

Published 16 September 2026. Markdown: cusco.md

The 48 places in Cusco with audio stories

In the order the app shows them.

  1. Plaza de Armas of Cusco
  2. Cusco Cathedral
  3. Qorikancha
  4. Sacsayhuamán
  5. Church of the Society of Jesus
  6. Historic Centre of Cusco
  7. Twelve-Angled Stone
  8. Museum of Pre-Columbian Art
  9. Tambomachay
  10. Puka Pukara
  11. Qenqo
  12. Machu Picchu
  13. Huayna Picchu
  14. Ollantaytambo
  15. Písac
  16. Moray
  17. Salt Mines of Maras
  18. Maras
  19. Chinchero
  20. Palace of Inca Roca
  21. Inka Museum
  22. Convent of Santa Catalina
  23. Church of La Merced
  24. Church of San Pedro
  25. Hatun Rumiyoc
  26. Inti Raymi
  27. Department of Cusco
  28. Urubamba
  29. Calca
  30. Yucay
  31. Inca Empire Heritage
  32. Avenida El Sol
  33. San Blas Neighbourhood
  34. San Pedro Market
  35. Wanchaq District
  36. Santiago District
  37. San Sebastián District
  38. San Jerónimo District
  39. Poroy District
  40. Saylla District
  41. Estadio Garcilaso
  42. National University of San Antonio Abad
  43. Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport
  44. Huayllabamba
  45. Písac District
  46. Chinchero Market
  47. San Cristóbal Church
  48. City of Cusco

Is there an audio guide for Plaza de Armas of Cusco?

Yes. Plaza de Armas of Cusco has its audio stories in the Roots Earth app: a short introduction and a deeper story, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian.

It is place 1 of the 48 Cusco places in the app, at -13.51727611, -71.98000389. Every one of the other 47 places in the list above has the same two stories.

Roots Earth is not a guided tour: you choose the place on the city's map of places and play its story yourself.

How to use Roots Earth in Cusco

Open Roots Earth and choose Cusco. The city has its own map of places with all 48 of them on it. Tap the place you are standing in front of, or any other, and play its short introduction or its deeper story. You decide what to listen to and in which order.

You can listen in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian, and there is no account. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection.

In full

All 48 places in Cusco, in the app's order, with their coordinates.

All 48 places in Cusco, with coordinates

Every place below has a short introduction and a deeper story in the Roots Earth app, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The names, the coordinates (latitude, longitude) and the one line descriptions are the app's own catalogue values of 15 September 2026; a place without a line here has none that this page can print.

1. Plaza de Armas of Cusco

Coordinates
-13.51727611, -71.98000389
In one line
Cusco's main square sits on the Inca ceremonial plaza of Huacaypata. Colonial arcades and two great churches frame it, while the surrounding lanes still carry centuries of Andean and Spanish history layered stone upon stone.

2. Cusco Cathedral

Coordinates
-13.5163, -71.9781
In one line
Built between 1559 and 1654 on the Inca palace of Viracocha, Cusco Cathedral blends a Renaissance facade with Baroque and Gothic interiors. Andean artists filled it with paintings, including a famous Last Supper featuring roasted guinea pig.

3. Qorikancha

Coordinates
-13.52, -71.97555556
In one line
Qorikancha was the Inca Empire's holiest temple, dedicated to the sun god Inti and once sheathed in gold. The Spanish stripped its treasure and built the convent of Santo Domingo above its flawless curved Inca walls.

4. Sacsayhuamán

Coordinates
-13.50777778, -71.98222222
In one line
Sacsayhuamán is a megalithic Inca complex above Cusco, built from the 15th century onward.

5. Church of the Society of Jesus

Coordinates
-13.5174, -71.97821183
In one line
Built by the Jesuits from 1576 and rebuilt in 1651 after the 1650 earthquake, this Andean Baroque church rises on the Inca palace of Huayna Cápac. Its lavish carved facade once rivalled the cathedral itself, sparking a famous dispute.

6. Historic Centre of Cusco

Coordinates
-13.51727611, -71.98000389
In one line
The historic centre of Cusco preserves the former Inca capital, where Spanish churches and mansions rise on Inca foundations within the original Inca street grid. A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983, it is a city built twice over.

7. Twelve-Angled Stone

Coordinates
-13.5161, -71.9764
In one line
Set in an Inca palace wall on Calle Hatunrumiyoc, the Twelve-Angled Stone is a single diorite block cut with twelve precise angles to lock into its neighbors. It is a celebrated emblem of Inca dry-stone masonry.

8. Museum of Pre-Columbian Art

Coordinates
-13.51611, -71.97889
In one line
Opened in 2003 inside a colonial mansion on Inca foundations, this Cusco museum gathers roughly 450 masterworks from ancient Peruvian cultures, drawn from Lima's Larco collection and arranged across ten galleries spanning gold, silver, wood, and ceramics.

9. Tambomachay

Coordinates
-13.48083333, -71.96472222
In one line
A 15th-century Inca water shrine above Cusco, often called the Inca baths. Spring-fed channels feed a sequence of stone fountains and waterfalls that still flow today, set into finely cut terraced rock honoring the sacred power of water.

10. Puka Pukara

Coordinates
-13.4834, -71.9618
In one line
A 15th-century Inca complex whose Quechua name means red fortress, for the rust-toned stone that glows at dusk. Set on high ground near Tambomachay, its terraces, walls, and stairways likely served as a checkpoint and waystation on the road to Cusco.

11. Qenqo

Coordinates
-13.51055556, -71.97166667
In one line
A 15th-century Inca ritual site carved from a great limestone outcrop near Cusco. Its Quechua name means zigzag, after the channels cut into the rock. One of the region's largest sacred huacas, it holds a subterranean altar used for ceremonies and likely sacrifice.

12. Machu Picchu

Coordinates
-13.16333333, -72.54555556
In one line
Built around 1450 under the emperor Pachacuti as an Inca royal estate, this ridge-top citadel above the Urubamba River was abandoned near the conquest and revealed to the world by Hiram Bingham in 1911. A UNESCO World Heritage Site and New Seven Wonder.

13. Huayna Picchu

Coordinates
-13.1575, -72.54722222
In one line
The steep green peak rising behind Machu Picchu, its Quechua name meaning young peak. The Inca cut a vertiginous stairway, temples, and terraces into its slopes.

14. Ollantaytambo

Coordinates
-13.25805556, -72.26333333
In one line
A 15th-century Inca citadel and still-living town in the Sacred Valley, rebuilt by the emperor Pachacuti. Here Manco Inca defeated a Spanish force in 1537 from the high terraces. Crowned by the Temple of the Sun's six rose-rhyolite monoliths and cliffside storehouses.

15. Písac

Coordinates
-13.42416667, -71.85777778
In one line
Písac crowns a ridge above the Sacred Valley, an Inca citadel built by Pachacuti around 1440. Sweeping farming terraces, a sun temple and cliffside tombs overlook a market town famous for its Quechua crafts.

16. Moray

Coordinates
-13.32916667, -72.19555556
In one line
Moray is an Inca site of concentric circular terraces sunk into a natural bowl near Maras, the deepest about 30 meters down. Their varying microclimates, up to 15 degrees Celsius apart, suggest an experimental farm for testing crops.

17. Salt Mines of Maras

Coordinates
-13.30027778, -72.15555556
In one line
The Salt Mines of Maras spill roughly 4,500 white evaporation pools down a mountain ravine. Fed by a salty spring used since pre-Inca times, they are still worked by hand by around 400 local families.

18. Maras

Coordinates
-13.33555556, -72.15694444
In one line
Maras is a quiet colonial town on the high plain above the Sacred Valley, around 3,300 meters up. Carved doorways and an old church mark its Inca-rooted streets, and it serves as the gateway to the famous salt pans and to Moray.

19. Chinchero

Coordinates
-13.39111111, -72.04777778
In one line
Chinchero is a high Andean town at about 3,762 meters, built over an Inca site. A colonial church rises on Inca foundations beside terraces and a great niched wall, and the town is renowned for its Quechua weaving traditions.

20. Palace of Inca Roca

Coordinates
-13.5161, -71.9764
In one line
On Calle Hatunrumiyoc stands a superb Inca wall, the surviving face of the palace of Inca Roca, sixth Sapa Inca and founder of the Hanan dynasty. Its flawless ashlar stonework now anchors the Archbishop's Palace of Cusco.

21. Inka Museum

Coordinates
-13.51556, -71.97861
In one line
The Museo Inka fills the colonial Casa del Almirante in central Cusco. Run by the city's university and founded in 1920, it holds a renowned collection of Inca keros, ceramics, metalwork, textiles and mummies tracing the region's history.

22. Convent of Santa Catalina

Coordinates
-13.51778, -71.97694
In one line
A Dominican convent that opened in 1605 on the site of an Inca temple for chosen women. Its first church rose between 1610 and 1612, and since 1975 the cloisters have housed a museum of the Cusco School of painting.

23. Church of La Merced

Coordinates
-13.51806, -71.97917
In one line
A Mercedarian church founded in the 1530s and rebuilt by the 1670s after the 1650 earthquake. Famous for its Baroque cloisters and a gold monstrance set with diamonds and pearls that weighs 22 kilograms and stands 130 centimeters tall.

24. Church of San Pedro

Coordinates
-13.51917, -71.98361
In one line
A church built between 1688 and 1699 over a hospital founded in 1556, near the lively San Pedro market. The 1650 earthquake collapsed the entire complex except a single hospital room, after which the church was rebuilt within two years.

25. Hatun Rumiyoc

Coordinates
-13.51611, -71.97639
In one line
An Inca palace wall on Calle Hatun Rumiyoc, now the base of the Archbishop's Palace. Its famous twelve-angled stone, cut from diorite and fitted without mortar into twelve precise corners, is a celebrated showcase of Inca masonry, named Cultural Heritage of Peru in 1972.

26. Inti Raymi

Coordinates
-13.50777778, -71.98222222
In one line
The Inca Festival of the Sun, honoring the sun god Inti at the winter solstice. Banned by Spanish authorities, it was revived in 1944 and is now staged every June 24, with its grand finale enacted on the esplanade of Sacsayhuamán above Cusco.

27. Department of Cusco

Coordinates
-13.26, -72.11
In one line
A region in southeastern Peru's Andes, the historic heart of the Inca Empire. Covering nearly 72,000 square kilometers across 13 provinces, it holds Machu Picchu, the Sacred Valley, and a capital at 3,399 meters where Quechua is still widely spoken.

28. Urubamba

Coordinates
-13.30416667, -72.11666667
In one line
The largest town in the Sacred Valley, set at 2,870 meters beneath the snow-capped Chicón peak. A transport hub on the Urubamba River, it serves travelers heading to Machu Picchu and holds the Inca royal estate of Quispiguanca within its limits.

29. Calca

Coordinates
-13.323, -71.956
In one line
Calca is a quiet market town in Peru's Sacred Valley, capital of Calca Province, set at around 2926 meters beside the Vilcanota River. Once an Inca domain near Huchuy Qosqo, it draws travelers with mineral hot springs and highland farmland.

30. Yucay

Coordinates
-13.3217, -72.083
In one line
Yucay is a tranquil village in Peru's Sacred Valley, set at around 2857 meters in the Urubamba Province. Once the royal estate of the Inca Huayna Capac and later home to Sayri Tupac, it preserves vast terraces and an irrigation system still in use today.

31. Inca Empire Heritage

Coordinates
-13.52, -71.97555556
In one line
The Inca Empire, called Tawantinsuyu, was the largest state in pre-Columbian America, ruled from Cusco. Forged after 1438 under Pachacuti and spanning the Andes by 1525, it bound millions through roads, terraces, and tribute before falling to the Spanish in the 1530s.

32. Avenida El Sol

Coordinates
-13.51917, -71.97694
In one line
Avenida El Sol is the main commercial artery of modern Cusco, running from the Plaza de Armas past Qorikancha. Lined with banks, offices, and Juan Bravo's monumental mural of the city's history, it is the busy civic spine of the 20th-century city.

33. San Blas Neighbourhood

Coordinates
-13.51444, -71.975
In one line
San Blas is Cusco's hillside artisan quarter, a maze of steep cobbled lanes, whitewashed houses, and workshops within the UNESCO historic center. Built over the old Inca district of Toqokachi, it centers on the small church of San Blas and remains the city's bohemian heart.

34. San Pedro Market

Coordinates
-13.51944, -71.98306
In one line
San Pedro Market is Cusco's main food market, a great iron-and-glass hall near the historic center dating from 1925. Beneath its long metal roof, stalls of produce, juices, bread, and crafts make it the bustling, everyday belly of the city.

35. Wanchaq District

Coordinates
-13.53, -71.9565
In one line
Wanchaq is the smallest and most densely populated district of Cusco Province, created in 1955 just southeast of the historic center. A residential and commercial quarter crossed by Avenida de la Cultura, it is where much of everyday modern Cusco actually lives.

36. Santiago District

Coordinates
-13.5415, -71.984
In one line
Santiago is a working-class district on Cusco's western slopes, established as a separate municipality in 1955. Home to nearly 95,000 residents, it climbs steep hillsides toward Anahuarque mountain and centres on its colonial Santiago Apóstol church.

37. San Sebastián District

Coordinates
-13.5362, -71.9261
In one line
San Sebastián is a fast-growing district southeast of central Cusco, named for its early colonial church. Home to over 112,000 people, it blends modern residential sprawl with Inca archaeological sites and a proud parish identity rooted in a famous Corpus Christi tradition.

38. San Jerónimo District

Coordinates
-13.5521, -71.8813
In one line
San Jerónimo is the southeastern gateway district of Cusco, famous for its sprawling wholesale produce market that feeds the city. Largely Quechua-speaking, it pairs a colonial parish church with fertile farmland and rising peaks reaching beyond 4,400 meters.

39. Poroy District

Coordinates
-13.5052, -72.0267
In one line
Poroy is a small high district northwest of Cusco, established in 1941. Long a quiet farming village near 3,570 meters, it became famous as the railway station where many travelers board trains bound for Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley.

40. Saylla District

Coordinates
-13.5649, -71.8386
In one line
Saylla is the smallest district of Cusco, lying on the southeastern road out of the city. Established in 1942, this once-rural community at around 3,138 meters is celebrated across the region for chicharrón, the crisp fried pork that draws hungry crowds from the city.

41. Estadio Garcilaso

Coordinates
-13.525, -71.966
In one line
Estadio Inca Garcilaso de la Vega is Cusco's football temple, opened in 1958 and now seating over 45,000. Home to Cienciano and Cusco FC, it witnessed the city's proudest sporting moment and is famed for its rainbow-colored stands echoing Cusco's flag.

42. National University of San Antonio Abad

Coordinates
-13.52, -71.95777778
In one line
The National University of San Antonio Abad, founded in 1692 by royal decree of King Charles II, is one of Peru's oldest universities. A public institution at the heart of Cusco's intellectual life, it has educated presidents, scholars, and generations of Andean students.

43. Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport

Coordinates
-13.53555556, -71.94361111
In one line
Cusco's high-altitude gateway, opened in 1964 and named for the pilot who first crossed the Andes by air. Sitting above 3,300 meters, it is most travelers' first breath of the old Inca capital.

44. Huayllabamba

Coordinates
-13.3372, -72.0644
In one line
A green Quechua district in the Sacred Valley whose very name means grassy plain.

45. Písac District

Coordinates
-13.4217, -71.8514
In one line
A Quechua market town in the Sacred Valley, famous for its crowded craft market and crowned by a great Inca citadel of terraces and cliffside tombs high on the ridge above the streets.

46. Chinchero Market

Coordinates
-13.39111111, -72.04777778
In one line
A high Andean market town renowned for its weavers, its Sunday market of textiles and barter, and a colonial church raised in 1607 atop the Inca palace of Tupac Yupanqui.

47. San Cristóbal Church

Coordinates
-13.51389, -71.98083
In one line
A hillside church above Cusco built by the baptized Inca prince Paullu and rebuilt after the 1650 earthquake.

48. City of Cusco

Coordinates
-13.5169, -71.9786
In one line
The ancient capital of the Inca Empire, set above 3,400 meters in the Andes and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983. Spanish churches rise on Inca walls in a living city that calls itself the navel of the world.

Roots Earth in short

Roots Earth has audio stories about 5,665 places in 130 cities, 25 countries and 6 regions, written by local people.

  • No account
  • Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection
  • Audio stories in English and German in every city, and in Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian in 126 of the 130 cities

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