Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(inhabitant of Cuzco), Huascar had the people's support, but Atahualpa had the backing of
the battle-hardened northern army. In early 1532 they won a key battle, capturing Huascar
outside Cuzco.
Meanwhile, Francisco Pizarro landed in northern Peru and marched southward. Atahu-
alpa himself had been too busy fighting the civil war to worry about a small band of for-
eigners, but by 1532 a fateful meeting had been arranged with the Spaniard in Cajamarca.
It was a meeting that would radically change the course of South American history:
Atahualpa was ambushed by a few dozen armed conquistadors, who succeeded in captur-
ing him, killing thousands of indigenous tribespeople and routing tens of thousands more.
In an attempt to regain his freedom, the
inca
offered a ransom of a roomful of gold and
two rooms of silver, including gold stripped from the temple walls of Qorikancha. But
after holding Atahualpa prisoner for a number of months, Pizarro murdered him anyway,
and soon marched on to Cuzco. Mounted on horseback, protected by armor and swinging
steel swords, the Spanish cavalry was virtually unstoppable.
Pizarro entered Cuzco on November 8, 1533, by which time he had appointed Manco, a
half-brother of Huascar and Atahualpa, as the new puppet leader. After a few years of
keeping to heel, however, the docile puppet rebelled. In 1536, Manco Inca set out to drive
the Spaniards from his empire, laying siege to Cuzco with an army estimated at well over
a hundred thousand people. Indeed, it was only a desperate last-ditch breakout and violent
battle at Sacsaywamán that saved the Spanish from complete annihilation.
Manco Inca was forced to retreat to Ollantaytambo and then into the jungle at Vil-
cabamba. After Cuzco was safely recaptured, looted and settled, the seafaring Spaniards
turned their attentions to the newly founded colonial capital, Lima. Cuzco's importance
quickly waned, and it became just another colonial backwater. All the gold and silver was
gone, and many Inca buildings were pulled down to accommodate churches and colonial
houses.
The Spanish kept chronicles in Cuzco, including Inca history as related by the Incas
themselves. The most famous of these accounts is
The Royal Commentaries of the Incas,
written by Garcilaso de la Vega, the son of an Inca princess and a Spanish military cap-
tain.
Sights
While the city is sprawling, areas of interest to visitors are generally within walking dis-
tance , with some steep hills in between. The center of the city is the Plaza de Armas,
while traffic-choked Av El Sol nearby is the main business thoroughfare. Walking just a
few blocks north or east of the plaza will lead you onto steep, twisting cobblestone streets,
