According to Charles C. Mann, “In 1491 the Inka ruled the greatest empire on earth. Bigger than Ming Dynasty China, bigger than Ivan the Great’s expanding Russia, bigger than Songhay in the Sahel or powerful Great Zimbabwe in the West Africa tablelands, bigger than the cresting Ottoman Empire, bigger than the Triple Alliance (as the Aztec empire is more precisely known), bigger by far than any European state, the Inka dominion extended over a staggering thirty-two degrees of latitude–as if a single power held sway from St. Petersburg to Cairo.” (1491, p. 64-5)
The Inka governed his empire from Qosqo where the first great Inka Pachakuti had created a 625 feet by 550 feet plaza carpeted with white sand and surrounded on three sides by stone palaces and temples veneered with gold plates. This plaza was not only the center of the empire, it was the center of the universe. Its magnificence was first diminished when the Inka Atawallpa had the gold stripped from its facades to help pay for his release from Pizarro (which didn’t happen). Then, when the Catholic Spanish moved in, they felt obliged to replace the heathen temples with churches and the palaces with mansions of their own design.
Thus, today it’s hard to imagine what this city looked like in its heyday. There is no monumental structure like the Parthenon in Athens or Coliseum in Rome to help visualize what this city looked like in its full glory.
Plaza de Armas, Cusco
The main plaza is much like one found in any European city. People congregate, children chase the pigeons, and the annoying hawkers pester you ad infinitum. Then again, I think maybe the peddlers are worse. They try to turn a polite “No thank you” into a personal offense, laying on the guilt by the basketful.
Plaza de Armas, Cusco
Buildings on the plaza exhibit their European roots with lots of balconies and arcades.
But, I have to say that, in my opinion, not only does Cusco’s Plaza de Armas fail to provide any sense of Inka civilization, it’s pretty ho-hum in comparison to the Plaza de Armas in Arequipa in numerous aspects, including landscape design, people-watching, surrounding architecture, and just a general sense of vibrancy.
Plaza de Armas in Arequipa