Cusco in the context of "Stonemasonry"

The Kingdom of Cusco (sometimes spelled Cuzco and in Quechua Qosqo or Qusqu), also called the Cusco confederation, the Cusco chiefdom, or the Inca Kingdom, was a small polity based in the Andean city of Cusco that began as a small city-state founded by the Incas around the start of 13th century. In time, through warfare or peaceful assimilation, it began to grow into the Inca Empire (1438–1533).

The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (Quechua: Tawantinsuyu pronounced [taˈwantiŋ ˈsuju], lit. 'land of four parts'), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The Inca civilisation rose from the Peruvian highlands sometime in the early 13th century. The Portuguese explorer Aleixo Garcia was the first European to reach the Inca Empire in 1524. Later, in 1532, the Spanish began the conquest of the Inca Empire, and by 1572 the last Inca state was fully conquered.

From 1438 to 1533, the Incas incorporated a large portion of western South America, centered on the Andean Mountains, using conquest and peaceful assimilation, among other methods. At its largest, the empire joined modern-day Peru with what are now western Ecuador, western and south-central Bolivia, northwest Argentina, the southwesternmost tip of Colombia and a large portion of modern-day Chile, forming a state comparable to the historical empires of Eurasia. Its official language was Quechua.

The Apurímac River (Quechua: Apurimaq mayu IPA: [ˈapʊ ˈɾɪmaχ ˈmajʊ]; Spanish: río Apurímac, IPA: [ˈri.o apuˈɾimak]; from Quechua apu 'chief' and rimaq 'the one who speaks, oracle', thus 'the chief oracle') rises from glacial meltwater of the ridge of the Mismi, a 5,597-metre-high (18,363 ft) mountain in the Arequipa Province in the south-western mountain ranges of Peru, 10 km (6.2 mi) from the village Caylloma, and less than 160 km (99 mi) from the Pacific coast. It flows generally northwest past Cusco in narrow gorges with depths of up to 3,000 m (9,800 ft), almost twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, its course interrupted by falls and rapids. Of the six attempts to travel the full length of the Apurímac so far, only two have been successful.

After 730 kilometres (450 mi), the Apurímac joins the Mantaro River and becomes the Ene River, 440 m (1,440 ft) above sea level; then after joining the Perené River at 330 m (1,080 ft) above sea level, it becomes the Tambo River; when it joins the Urubamba at 280 m (920 ft) above sea level the river becomes the Ucayali, which is the main headstream of the Amazon. Sometimes the complete river from its source to its junction with the Ucayali, including the rivers Ene and Tambo, is called "Apurímac", with a total length of 1,070 km (660 mi).

The Incas were most notable for establishing the Inca Empire which was centered in modern-day Peru and Chile. It was about 4,000 kilometres (2,500 mi) from the northern to southern tip. The Inca Empire lasted from 1438 to 1533. It was the largest Empire in America throughout the Pre-Columbian era. The Inca state was originally founded by Manco Cápac in the early 1200s, and is known as the Kingdom of Cuzco. Under subsequent rulers, through strategic alliances and conquests, it expanded beyond Cusco and into the Sacred Valley. Their territory then rapidly grew under the 9th Sapa Inca (emperor), Pachacuti and his descendents.

Over the course of the Inca Empire, the Inca used conquest and peaceful assimilation to incorporate the territory of modern-day Peru, followed by a large portion of western South America, into their empire, centered on the Andean mountain range. However, shortly after the Inca Civil War, the last Sapa Inca of the Inca Empire, Atahualpa, was captured and killed on the orders of the conquistador Francisco Pizarro, marking the beginning of Spanish rule. The remnants of the empire retreated to the remote jungles of Vilcabamba and established the small Neo-Inca State, which was conquered by the Spanish in 1572.

Machu Picchu is a 15th-century Inca citadel located in the Eastern Cordillera of southern Peru on a mountain ridge at 2,430 meters (7,970 ft). It is situated in the Machupicchu District of Urubamba Province about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northwest of Cusco, above the Sacred Valley and along the Urubamba River, which forms a deep canyon with a subtropical mountain climate.

Often referred to as the "Lost City of the Incas", Machu Picchu is one of the most iconic symbols of the Inca civilization and a major archaeological site in the Americas. Built around 1450, it is believed to have served as an estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuti, though no contemporary written records exist to confirm this. The site was abandoned roughly a century later, likely during the Spanish conquest. Modern radiocarbon dating places its occupation between c. 1420 and 1530.

Southern Quechua (Quechua: Urin qhichwa, Spanish: quechua sureño), or simply Quechua (Qichwa or Qhichwa), is the most widely spoken of the major regional groupings of mutually intelligible dialects within the Quechua language family, with about 6.9 million speakers. Besides Guaraní, it is the only indigenous language of America with more than 5 million speakers. The term Southern Quechua refers to the Quechuan varieties spoken in regions of the Andes south of a line roughly east–west between the cities of Huancayo and Huancavelica in central Peru. It includes the Quechua varieties spoken in the regions of Ayacucho, Cusco and Puno in Peru, in much of Bolivia and parts of north-west Argentina. The most widely spoken varieties are Cusco, Ayacucho, Puno (Collao), and South Bolivian.

In the traditional classification of the Quechua language family by Alfredo Torero, Southern Quechua is equivalent to Torero's 'Quechua IIc' (or just 'QIIc'). It thus stands in contrast to its many sister varieties within the wider Quechuan family that are spoken in areas north of the Huancayo–Huancavelica line: Central Quechua (Torero's QI) spoken from Huancayo northwards to the Ancash Region; North Peruvian Quechua around Cajamarca and Incahuasi (Torero's IIa); and Kichwa (part of Torero's Quechua IIb).