The area mainly between the towns of Pisac and Ollantaytambo, northwest of Cusco, has been called “The Sacred Valley of the Incas”, irrigated by the Vilcanota River, which later changed its name to Urubamba.
Since pre-Hispanic times it became the appropriate place for the foundation of towns, being the Incas who took best advantage of the beauty and goodness of this land to settle along both banks of the river building in stone urban centers, palaces, fortresses, temples, religious centers, shrines and places of ritual transcendence typical of the Andean mysticism.
The Sacred Valley of the Incas is one of the major tourist attractions of the Andean region because of its impressive landscape, its imposing snow-capped mountains, its pleasant climate, its fertile lands with abundant water, its megalithic cultural evidence and because it offers diverse possibilities for the practice of adventure tourism.