Just 15km north of Cusco, you will find the Sacred Valley. With towns such as Pisac and Ollantaytambo, the Sacred Valley, also known as the Sacred Valley of the Incas, is regularly hailed as one of the most important historical places of South America, and was extremely important for the Incas, located in the valley of the Urubamba River.

The Sacred Valley of the Incas specifically refers to the section of the valley that is divided by the Urubamba River. The towns that make up the valley are Pisac, Calca, Yucay, Urubamba, and Ollantaytambo. Here, it is not just Machu Picchu that is an important site, there are ruins in both Pisac and in Ollantaytambo that prove, once again, the Inca prowess for stone-masonry and architecture. These towns were used as guards for the borders of the Sacred Valley and helped to prevent attacks from enemies.

The Sacred Valley flourished as it’s lands were rich enough to become the center of food production for the Inca people, even today you can see the incredible innovation that was taken on by the Inca, in Moray, agricultural laboratories were used to experiment with plantlife, and find the optimum conditions to grow each plant. The Inca’s grew everything from corn, fruits, and vegetables, to cocoa plants and avocados.

The valley wasn’t built just for its agricultural value, but also in the representation of the constellations. This highlights how important the sky was to the Inca’s, and the religious significance of the cosmology. You can find ceremonial temples, palaces and a fortress in this valley in this little nook hidden deep in the beautiful landscapes. Tradition and culture remain important for those living here so you won’t find it difficult to immerse yourself in the history and the beautiful landscapes of this area.

History of the Sacred Valley

In the 15th century two Inca leaders, Pachacuti Yupanqui, and Tupac Yupanqui built an enormous empire in South America. This empire ran the unbelievable distance from the center of Chile, all the way to Southern Colombia. It occupied the entirety of Peru, most of Ecuador, and parts of Argentina and Bolivia. This incredible empire was known as the Tahuantinsuyo Empire. At a mind-blowing 4,000 kilometers from North to South and covered with a road network of 40,000 kilometers, this was one of the biggest empires of South American history. And the center of it all? Cusco. Cusco was a part of the Sacred Valley and had an extraordinary amount of financial and agricultural wealth. It was protected by Inca fortresses. The valley extended up to the Vilcanota and Urubamba Rivers. Vilcanota River, in particular, was sacred to the Incas, as it represented the Milky Way.