UntoldPeru

Ancient Places

The Places That Leave Us Asking Questions

Across Peru, monumental stonework, remote citadels, ancient ceremonial landscapes, and forgotten routes invite us to look closer. Some histories are well documented. Others remain debated, incomplete, or preserved in stories passed down through generations.

The towering central wall of the Temple of Wiracocha at Raqchi, with round stone storehouses in the foreground

Destination 01 · Canchis, Cusco region

Raqchi — The Temple of Wiracocha

A single colossal wall of stone and adobe rises from the plain on the old road south from Cusco.

The woven grass suspension bridge of Q'eswachaka spanning a rocky gorge above the Apurímac river

Destination 02 · Canas, Cusco region

Q'eswachaka — The Living Inca Bridge

A bridge woven from grass, rebuilt by hand every year over a gorge of the Apurímac.

A carved stone stela in front of the terraced ceremonial platforms of Pukará, with a red sandstone hill behind

Destination 03 · Lampa, Puno region

Pukará — The Ancient Ceremonial Center of Lake Titicaca

Carved stelae and terraced platforms from one of the earliest complex societies of the Titicaca basin.

Stone terraces and buildings of Choquequirao on a ridge above the deep Apurímac canyon, with clouds

Destination 04 · Vilcabamba range, Apurímac & Cusco

Choquequirao — The Other Great Citadel

Terraces poured down a mountain spur above the Apurímac canyon — reached only on foot.

Layered cloud forest ridges disappearing into mist on the eastern slopes of the Andes

Destination 05 · Eastern Andes & Amazon frontier

Paititi — The Lost City of Legend

A city of gold said to lie beyond the last ridges of the Andes. No one has proved it exists.

The stone walls of Waqrapukara built atop horn-shaped rock pinnacles above a deep canyon

Destination 06 · Acomayo, Cusco region

Waqrapukara — The Fortress in the Clouds

Walls built onto two horn-shaped pinnacles, high above the Apurímac canyon.

Stone and adobe buildings and terraces of Huchuy Qosqo high above the Sacred Valley

Destination 07 · Calca, Sacred Valley

Huchuy Qosqo — The Little Royal Estate

Stone and adobe halls on a high shelf above the Sacred Valley, reached by old footpaths.

A precisely carved stone altar with a trapezoidal niche inside a rock overhang at Ñaupa Iglesia

Destination 08 · Ollantaytambo, Sacred Valley

Ñaupa Iglesia — The Enigmatic Stone Sanctuary

A carved altar and niche cut into the living rock of a cliff-side cave.

Massive walls and round stone houses of Kuélap with cloud forest mountains in mist behind

Destination 09 · Amazonas region, northern Peru

Kuélap — The Great Fortress of the Cloud Forest

Massive walls and hundreds of round houses on a ridge above the Utcubamba valley.

Tall curved fieldstone walls of Marcahuamachuco on a grassy plateau under cloud

Destination 10 · La Libertad, northern highlands

Marcahuamachuco — The Forgotten Mountain City

Galleried towers of stone on a mountain plateau, long before the Inca.