Cusco
The former Inca capital, its colonial city built directly atop Inca stone foundations.
Explore attraction →Welcome to Peru — Andes, Amazon and Inca Stonework
Peru packs three distinct geographies into one country: a Pacific desert coastline, the high Andes running down its spine, and Amazon rainforest spilling over the eastern border. Its best-known site sits at the meeting point of two of them — Machu Picchu, an Inca citadel perched on a ridge above the Urubamba River, reachable only by train or a multi-day trek through cloud forest.
Cusco, the former Inca capital, anchors most itineraries at over 3,400 metres of altitude, its colonial churches built directly on top of Inca stone foundations that have outlasted several earthquakes the newer construction didn't. Peru's food scene has become a destination in its own right, too — Lima now regularly places multiple restaurants among the world's best-regarded, built on ceviche, Andean ingredients and a genuinely distinct culinary identity rather than borrowed technique.