George & Eve DeLange

Quenko is located in the Archaeological Park of Sacsayhuaman ( Parque Arqueológico de Sacsayhuamán ), pronounced - "sexy woman"; located to the north of Cusco (Qosqo). The park embraces 3,000 hectares approximately, where you can see a rich Andean flora and fauna, including llamas, kestrels and hawks. It also contains many archaeological monuments. Quenko is located on a small hill called Socorro, it is a temple or oracle. It is located just a few minutes away from Puca Pucara. It is one of the 300 temples of the Inca Empire that was tied to the Temple of Koricancha along one of the cardinal lines that lead from there. This small archeological site is made up of limestone. It has two parts, one called the "Great Carved Rock" and a semicircular plaza called the "Amphitheater". On the "Great Carved Rock" we see a natural rock formation on which there are carved figures of animals, such as reptiles, felines and two cylindrical figures or shapes. In another part of the "Great Carved Rock" area we can see a figure in bass-relief with broken lines that ends in a hole that leads to an underground gallery located below the rock in which we find square and rectangular carvings facing an open plaza-like space with many engraved figures. The Amphitheater, is a great elliptical wall with 19 niches that appear to be wide seats or thrones on the west side, and an interesting monolith of about 13 feet in height on the east side. Huayna Capac Inca (at the end of the 15th century) ordered the construction of Quenko for funeral rituals. Quenko also looks like it could have functioned as an astronomical observatory similar to that in Machupicchu called "The Princess Tomb". Less than 1500 feet away we find another archaeological site with similar characteristics called "Little Quenko", where we find a series of carved rocks and seats of stone. The monument is surrounded by a wall with granite stones laid out in a square. Qenko is very interesting and different from most Inca ruins. In some respects, Quenko looks as if it were entirely carved from one massive rock, about 300+ feet long. Until 1934, the whole ruins was covered beneath about nine feet of earth. We will show large photos of the most important features followed by smaller photos of the walk into the underground areas. We were at Quenko at about 3:47 PM on the afternoon of April 18, 2006.

The first choice of where to go in order to visit Quenko, near Cusco, Peru is to fly in to Cusco, Peru. The Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport (IATA: CUZ, ICAO: SPZO) is located in the city of Cusco, in southeastern Peru. Cusco is a principal tourist attraction in Latin America, and it receives various domestic flights as well as some international flights. There are several really nice hotels in Cusco. There are also several Guided Tour Agencies offering standard city, and archaeological tours of Cusco and the surrounding area. This page is for information purposes only and while we have made every effort to be accurate, it is the travelers responsibility to make the appropriate choice as to which hotels to use in Peru. We found that when touring Peru, Magical Cusco Tours gave us the best service of all. They even arranged very personal tours based upon our ages and experience. They were there for us whenever we needed them. Click on any of their links on our pages and they will give you a 4% discount for taking their package tours. Mention delange.org. Merchant Code Inka2010 for your discount! We suggest letting Ana Maria handle your tour. Note: The 4% discount applies to package tours only! Discount does not apply to hotel bookings, domestic or international tickets, meals or any other service booked as a single activity. Magical Cusco Tours also has a culinary tour that you may enjoy.Click Here For: Taste Of Peru.com their culinary tour page. We also have links to Priceline.Com on our pages, in case you may prefer to use their services.