Cusco Inca Wall

About the Inca Wall

Cusco is a historic city in southeastern Peru, once the capital of the Inca Empire. Known for its impressive Inca stone walls and architecture, the city features the famous Twelve-Angled Stone and other remarkable examples of Inca masonry. Cusco combines ancient Andean heritage with Spanish colonial architecture.

Massive polygonal masonry built under the Inca state in the fifteenth century still lines streets such as Hatun Rumiyoc, where the wall attributed to the palace of Inca Roca contains the much-photographed twelve-angled stone; the palace attribution rests on colonial chronicles rather than firm evidence. After Spanish forces took the city in 1533, churches and mansions were raised directly on these foundations, most visibly at Qorikancha beneath the convent of Santo Domingo. The walls' survival of the earthquakes of 1650 and 1950, which damaged much colonial construction, reinforced their reputation for engineering skill. Today they anchor Cusco's UNESCO World Heritage listing of 1983 and serve residents as evidence of Inca continuity beneath the colonial city.