◈ hidden gem
📷 Bryan Dougherty (bryand_nyc) from New York City, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0
Where in the world
Peru
Choquequirao
Inca · Peru
Field notes
- civilizations
- Inca
- types
- Citadel · Temple
- built
- 1,536 CE — 1,500 CE
- occupied
- 1,450 CE — 1,590 CE
- country
- Peru
The site
Choquequirao is a 16th-century Inca site perched on a steep mountainside above the Apurímac River in southern Peru's rugged Vilcabamba range. Often called the sister city of Machu Picchu for its similar plan, it spreads buildings and agricultural terraces around a truncated hilltop, famed for fine stonework, water channels and white-stone mosaics of llamas set into its terrace walls. A ceremonial and administrative hub, it became one of the last strongholds of Inca resistance and is still reached only by a two-day hike.
