Santo Domingo Church on Coricancha, Cuzco, Peru, South America.

Santo Domingo Church was built on top of Coricancha, Cuzco's major Inca temple, and was twice destroyed by earthquakes, in 1650 and 1950. Cuzco, the longest continuously occupied city in the Americas, is built upon the foundations of the Incas. Francisco Pizarro officially founded Spanish Cuzco in 1534, in Peru, South America. UNESCO honored the City of Cuzco (Cusco or Qosqo) on the World Heritage List in 1983. Quechua oral history says that the first Inca, Manco Capac, the son of the sun god (inti), founded the city of Cuzco in the 1100s AD. After 1430 AD, the Incas burst out of Cuzco and quickly imposed their culture from southern Colombia to central Chile. The Incas used their absolute rule and organizational genius to build vast terraces for growing food on the steep Andes Mountains in a moderate climate, away from the dry desert coast and above the mosquito-filled Amazon Basin. The Incas developed textiles, pottery, metals, architecture, amazingly fitted rock walls, empire-wide roads, bridges, and irrigation, but never discovered the wheel, arch, or writing. Despite their amazing accomplishments, the Inca Empire lasted barely a century.

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Filename: 03PER-03-20-Coricancha-Santo-Domingo.jpg
Copyright: © Tom Dempsey / PhotoSeek.com
Image Size: 3012x4500 / 3.2MB; http://www.photoseek.com/; Peru South America architecture art art work building history past Andes
Contained in galleries: PERU: Cuzco, Urubamba, Lares trek 2000

Santo Domingo Church was built on top of Coricancha, Cuzco's major Inca temple, and was twice destroyed by earthquakes, in 1650 and 1950. Cuzco, the longest continuously occupied city in the Americas, is built upon the foundations of the Incas. Francisco Pizarro officially founded Spanish Cuzco in 1534, in Peru, South America. UNESCO honored the City of Cuzco (Cusco or Qosqo) on the World Heritage List in 1983. Quechua oral history says that the first Inca, Manco Capac, the son of the sun god (inti), founded the city of Cuzco in the 1100s AD. After 1430 AD, the Incas burst out of Cuzco and quickly imposed their culture from southern Colombia to central Chile. The Incas used their absolute rule and organizational genius to build vast terraces for growing food on the steep Andes Mountains in a moderate climate, away from the dry desert coast and above the mosquito-filled Amazon Basin. The Incas developed textiles, pottery, metals, architecture, amazingly fitted rock walls, empire-wide roads, bridges, and irrigation, but never discovered the wheel, arch, or writing. Despite their amazing accomplishments, the Inca Empire lasted barely a century.