Tipón

One of the most elaborate and well-preserved examples of Inca agricultural terracing is Tipón (7 a.m.–5 p.m., US$1.50), which lies 22 kilometers south of Cusco [1] and then another four kilometers up a valley via a switchbacking gravel road.

The terraces, finely fitted and impossibly tall, run in straight lines to the head of a narrow valley. They are irrigated by an elaborate aqueduct that still runs from Pachatusan, the sacred mountain that looms over the site, whose name in Quechua means “cross beam of the universe.”

There are remains of a two-story house on the site and other ruins, possibly a fort, near the top of the aqueduct.