Qorikancha

Lonely Planet review

These Incan ruins form the base of the colonial church and convent of Santo Domingo. Once the richest temple in the Incan empire, all that remains today is the masterful stonework. Qorikancha, which is Quechua for 'Golden Courtyard', was literally covered with gold: the temple walls were lined with some 700 solid-gold sheets. Within months of the arrival of the first conquistadors, this incredible wealth had all been looted and melted down.

It is said that the mummified bodies of several previous Incas were kept here, brought out into the sunlight each day and offered food and drink, which was then ritually burnt. Qorikancha was also an observatory from which high priests monitored celestial activities. Most of this is left to the imagination of the modern visitor, but the remaining stonework ranks with the finest Incan architecture in Peru. A curved, perfectly fitted wall (6m/20ft) can be seen from both inside and outside the site. This wall has withstood all of the violent earthquakes that have leveled most of Cuzco's colonial buildings.