CUZCO, THE PUMA CITY OF THE ANDES.

The Andean Puma is a small feline native to the high Andes and it is believed that fewer than 2500 individuals still exist in the wild. It has an ashy-gray fur, a gray head, ears and face. In the Southern Andes, where the terrain is arid, sparsely vegetated, rocky and steep, there they live at elevations over 4,000m/13,000ft, in the mountains of Central Peru, and Bolivia.
Cuzco, the historic capital of the Inca Empire is regarded as the city of the Puma. It was planned and built in a Valley that was occupied by small settlements since 1000 BC, as an effigy in the shape of a Puma, a sacred animal. Then it grew when the Incas made Cuzco their capital. The city is at an elevation of 3,400m/11,200ft.
The unique nature of the Puma city was further compunded by the fact it was surrounded by terracing which spread beyond the two Rivers that formed the city limits.The Sacsayhuaman fortress represented the head, while the body was portrayed by the city, which spread out between the rivers: the Saphy and the Tullumayo. These Rivers have since been channeled under the streets with the same names, one runs underneath the streets of Saphy, Plateros, and Avenida El Sol, while the other runs underneath Choquechaca and Tullumayo. The spot where the two Rivers flowed into each other, now marked by a fountain, was known as Pumac-Chupan, or "the Puma's Tail." The fields formed a buffer zone which isolated the sacred quarter in the centre of the city.
The name is derived from the phrase QusQu Wanka ("Rock of the Owl") related to the city foundational myth of the Ayar siblings. According to this legend, Ayar Auca acquired wings and flew to the site of the future Puma city; there he was transformed into a rock to mark the possession of the land by his clan (ayllu : lineage).
It is unknown how Cuzco was built. or how its large stones were quarried and transported to the site. The city planning responded to the cosmic vision of the its ancient inhabitants. Under the Inca cosmological belief, the city was divided in 2 halves: the Hanan and the Hurin, above and below. Each half was in turn subdivided in two halves again, it was a reflection of the division of the Empire into 4 realms or Suyos: Chinchaysuyo (NW), Antisuyo (NE), Contisuyo (SW), and Collasuyo (SE).
Then the Puma city was divided into 4 roads that led out of the city and headed to the 4 realms. A complementary system was that of the Ceques, or energy lines that radiated from the temple of the Sun in the direction of the 4 Suyos, and which linked up with shrines or temples in Cuzco. In each of the sectors of the Chinchaysuyo, Antisuyo, and Collasuyo, there were 9 lines of energy (Ceques), and 14 in the Contisuyo. The number of shrines totalled 333.
One of the peculiarities of the capital city of the Incas, Cuzco, was its perfect adaptation to the topography of the Valley and its natural contours.
Its administrative organization, which subdivided quarters according to origin and specialty of the craftsmen; its architectural harmony, wisely adapted to the landscape and weather; the efficient conservation of the environment; and the ingenious provision of natural resources to keep the economy humming, make Cuzco of the Incas, the finest model of social organization that this civilization bequeathed to the Andean world.