Choquequirao – The Last Refuge of the Incas

It is located in the district of Vilcabamba, on the skirts of the snowcapped mount Yanacocha, in the province of La Convención. The highway to Abancay gets you here from Cusco. In kilometer 154 a detour is taken to the town of Cachora; there a 30 km road made on horseback or trekking takes you to the archaeological center that has an importance comparable to Machu Picchu. According to the specialists, it would have been a religious, political and economic enclave – as well as a comercial and cultural link between the coast, the highlands and the jungle – buit during the command of Inca Pachacútec. It is divided into nine sectors and its architecture is distributed around a large area or main square. It includes hundreds of agricultural terraces, rooms and irrigation systems.