TOURIST ATTRACTIONS IN THE CUSCO

QORIKANCHA (ENCLOSURE OF GOLD)

Initially built as religious enclosures of the ancient inhabitants of the Huatanay Valley, it was transformed by the inca Yupanqui and known as the Temple of the Sun. It was one of the incan Cusco's most impacting constructions. as inside it , there were walls completele covered with gold sheets and gardens with gold sheets and gardens with full size corn plants and was composed of six enclosures of wich only two are conserved, as the rest was destroyed to build the church and anlarge the Dominican cloister,in the 16 century.

Since 1534, the conquerors erected the church and the dominican monastery upon the Incan foundations and both were destroyed as a consequence of the 1650 earthquake and rebuilt around 1681. this fact allowed the original incan walls to be discovered, as these had been covered with a lime plasterwork. The Monastery of Santo Domingo possesses a very valuable painting collection, with canvases from the 17 and 18 centuries. It is built with perfectly jointed. finely lapidated rectangular stone blocks. A disc of massive gold that existed above its door, with the design of the Sun, was hidden by the natives and on one ever knew what happend to it, thus contributing in giving more veracity to the legend about the incas incomparable wealth

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