Qorikancha

Qorikancha — which means 'Golden Enclosure' in Quechua — was the most sacred site in the entire Inca Empire. Dedicated to Inti, the sun god, it once had walls lined with sheets of solid gold and a garden filled with life-sized gold and silver replicas of plants and animals. When the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the 1530s, they stripped all of that away and built the Convent of Santo Domingo directly on top of the Inca stonework. What you see today is one of the most viscerally affecting pieces of colonial history in South America: a Dominican church and convent rising out of perfectly fitted Inca stone foundations, the two civilizations literally stacked on top of each other.

Inside, you move between worlds. The Inca rooms — curved, precisely cut, without mortar — survived the 1950 earthquake that damaged much of the Spanish construction, which is its own kind of poetic justice. You can walk through several original Inca chambers, see the niches where golden idols once stood, and look out at the curved exterior wall that has awed every visitor since the Spanish arrived. A small museum within the complex holds Inca artifacts and explains the site's cosmological significance. Outside, the garden wraps around the complex and offers a quietly beautiful space to decompress.

Qorikancha sits right in the historic center of Cusco, a short walk from the Plaza de Armas. It's included in the Boleto Turístico Parcial (one of the partial tourist tickets) but can also be entered separately — and the entry fee is modest. Sunday hours are sharply reduced, so plan accordingly. Go early on weekdays to beat the tour groups; the light in the Inca chambers is best in the morning.