# Roots Earth in Cusco: audio stories about 48 places Canonical: https://rootsearth.com/cities/cusco Published: 16 September 2026 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. ## 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 Roots Earth for Android is available on Google Play: [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rootsearth.app](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rootsearth.app). ## More from Roots Earth - [Latin America in the Roots Earth catalogue](https://rootsearth.com/cities#latin-america): every city in Latin America with its number of places and its languages. - [What Roots Earth is](https://rootsearth.com/app): the app in one page, how it works and what is in it. - [Questions travellers ask](https://rootsearth.com/faq): the cities, the languages, the account, listening without a connection. - [The 7 languages](https://rootsearth.com/languages): the seven languages with their codes and how many cities each one covers. - [Arequipa](https://rootsearth.com/cities/arequipa): 44 places in Peru with audio stories. - [Lima](https://rootsearth.com/cities/lima): 50 places in Peru with audio stories. - [Puno](https://rootsearth.com/cities/puno): 40 places in Peru with audio stories. - [Trujillo](https://rootsearth.com/cities/trujillo-peru): 40 places in Peru with audio stories. 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