Cusco is one of peru's greatest treasures .seat of the ancient inka empire, cusco is home of many of the country's most splendid examples of pre columbian art and archichecture .and many of its buidings rest upon incan foundations. cusco's settings is one of breathtaking beauty: the dramatic snow-capped peaks of the andes rising above the warm colors of the urubamba river valley.

The area is also rich in peru's vibrang living heritage : QUECHUA indians, many of whom maintain essentially the same way of life they have known for thousands of years.

Quechua (Runa Simi) is a Native American language of South America. It was already widely spoken across the Central Andes long before the time of the Incas, who established it as the official language of administration for their Empire, and is still spoken today in various regional forms (the so-called ‘dialects') by some 10 million people (known as the Quechua) through much of South America, including most extensively and numerously in Peru, but also in south-western and central Bolivia, southern Colombia and Ecuador, north-western Argentina and northern Chile. It is the most widely spoken language of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

Though it is traditionally referred to as a single language, many (if not most) linguists treat it as a family of related languages - Quechuan languages, with approximately 46 dialects, grouped in at least seven languages.

Quechua is a very regular agglutinative language, as opposed to a fusional one. Its normal sentence order is SOV (subject-object-verb). Its large number of suffixes changes both the overall significance of words and their subtle shades of meaning. Notable grammatical features include bipersonal conjugation (verbs agree with both subject and object), evidentiality (indication of the source and veracity of knowledge), a topic particle, and suffixes indicating who benefits from an action and the speaker's attitude toward it.Though Cusco is a worthy destination in iseft,some visitors only spend a few days exploring the city and its surroundings on their to machupicchu .but even if your time is limited ,keep in mine that a visit to Cusco is best approached at a leisurely pace ,you can get the most out of your stay if you take it slow, giving yourself at least a day to adjust to the altitude , as well as the ins-and-outs of life in the Cusco .

Capital Cusco

Area 71,986.5 km2

Population:

• Total 1 208 689 (2002 estimate)
• Density 16.8/km2
• Subdivisions 13 provinces and 107 districts

Elevation:

• Lowest 532 m (Pilcopata)
• Highest 4801 m (Suyckutambi)
• Latitude 11º10' to 15º18' S
• Longitude 70º25' to 73º58' W
• Main resources Gold, maize, barley, quinoa, and tea
• Poverty rate 75.3%
• Percentage of country's GDP 2.18%
• Dialing code 084
• Geography Cusco (Quechua: Qosqo suyu) city (1993 pop. 97,466), alt. 11,207 ft (3,416 m), is a region in Peru Its capital is the city of Cusco, the capital of the Inca Empire.

The Cusco region has a very diverse landscape where elevated alignments of mountains with vast altiplanos and plateaus with slight surfaces and deep valleys and canyons are mixed.

The Eastern Andes mountain range, which is the spinal column of this region, has been strongly eroded by the complex system of courses of waters draining toward the jungle as well as glaciers. Nowadays only three chains of mountains are left from the old Eastern mountain range which are oriented from the southeast to northeast part, such as Vilcabamba which defines the hydrographic systems of the Urubamba and Apurímac rivers with elevated peaks like Salkantay and Pumasillo; the Vilcanota with its most important peak, the Ausangate, which is also the region's highest peak; and the Paucartambo with smaller dimensions than the previous channels. Also, Cusco has alignments of mountains with smaller elevations and local characteristics like the residual highlands which originate from the wearing of the old andean altiplano caused by strong erosion of rivers due to the high andean lifting. The two most important highland zones are: Vilcabamba enclosing the valley of Cusco and whose most important peak is Huanacaure; and the Mountains of Cusco, located at the north of the city, whose highest peak is the Pachatusan.
Like in all Andean regions, the main rivers and its affluents have formed deep valleys and canyons, among the most important ones are those formed by the Urubamba, Apurímac and Paucartambo rivers.

The valley of Urubamba shows alluvial terraces in its thick soils where a strong population dedicated to agriculture is established. The Urubamba river, under 2000 m, has formed a deep and narrow canyon which reaches all its beauty close to Machu Picchu, showing a rare landscape of bends. Due to the diversity of soil altitudes, the region has a great variety of climates and landscapes, which have strongly influenced on agriculture and the distribution of populations

parners info links:

http://www.wikipedia.org
http://www.facebook.com
http://www.frommers.com
http://www.perurail.com
http://www.tripadvisor.com
http://www.cuscoperu.com
http://www.dirceturcusco.gob.pe  
http://www.inc-cusco.gob.pe/tarifas2009.html  
http://www.promperu.gob.pe  
http://www.peru.info  
http://www.cosituc.gob.pe  
http://www.andeantravelweb.com  

rates (tourists pass)

http://cosituc.gob.pe/tarifas.php

prices 2009 (quechuasexpeditions ) no hidden costs

http://www.perurail.com/web/tper/journeys/4_52201.jsp
http://www.inc-cusco.gob.pe/tarifas2009.html

Peru Travel, Tourism and Tours
Ideal website for those considering travel to Peru, Peru tourism and Peru tours. Overview of people, culture and traditions that still exist from the ancient Inca Empire. Pictures of Lima, Lake Titacaca, Machu Picchu, Cuzco and the Sacred Valley.
www.peru-travel-adventures.com

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