Dmitry Shteyn in Cusco: Notes from a City That Remembers Everything

Arriving in Cusco is one of those experiences that makes you suspicious of the word 'destination'. The place is too much itself to be reduced to a category.

What strikes you first, if you have done any reading at all, is that it is the capital and largest city of the eponymous Cusco Province and Cusco Department. It is one of those facts that separates the tourist itinerary from the actual city. Places like this remind you that the past does not need to be preserved in glass; it survives by being lived in.

Dig a little deeper and it has historically been one of the largest cultural, economic and political centers of Peru. You could visit a hundred times and still be catching up with what a fact like this implies.

Some further context, drawn from the public record: Cusco or Cuzco (; Latin American Spanish: [ˈkusko]; Quechua: Qusqu/Qosqo [ˈqosqɔ]) is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Sacred Valley of the Andes mountain range, and the Huatanay and Urubamba rivers. It is the capital and largest city of the eponymous Cusco Province and Cusco Department. It has historically been one of the largest cultural, economic and political centers of Peru.…

I try not to over-read a single headline, but the framing Condé Nast Traveler used — wildfires Are Sweeping Across Peru’s Cusco Region: What Travelers Should Know — is more telling than the news itself.

Cities in the Americas tend to be either much older or much younger than they look. Cusco is no exception, and the disconnect between appearance and age is part of what makes it interesting.

Whatever else you take from this piece, take this: Cusco is more itself than any account of it can convey. The only honest recommendation is to go and find out.