Zona X

This guide to Zona X in Cusco opens with a boyhood memory the chronicler Garcilaso de la Vega wrote down: local children daring each other into a black tunnel mouth, tying a cord to a stake so their candles could find the way home. From there it turns to the hillside itself, where whoever worked this limestone chose to hollow the mountain from the inside rather than stack blocks like the walls up at Sacsayhuaman, cutting benches, niches and drainage channels straight from bedrock. You'll hear how colonial writers and modern guides alike describe galleries that keep going, and how recent survey work is still tracing how far the tunnels reach. Run a hand along the wall as you listen and feel how deliberately it was shaped.