Cusco

Cusco sits at 3,400 meters elevation in the Peruvian Andes, and the thin atmosphere produces sharper shadows, deeper blue skies, and a clarity that makes colors pop with unusual intensity. The city was the capital of the Inca Empire from the 13th century until the Spanish conquest in 1533, and that collision of civilizations is visible everywhere: Inca stone foundations supporting colonial Baroque churches, indigenous textiles sold beneath Spanish archways in the Plaza de Armas. Beyond the city, Machu Picchu (rediscovered by Hiram Bingham III in 1911, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983) offers landscape photography that many describe as transcendent. The terraces of Moray, the salt pans of Maras, and Rainbow Mountain (Vinicunca, accessible to tourists since approximately 2016) provide subjects that appear otherworldly in the Andean light. For gear planning, altitude and cold temperatures require extra batteries and acclimatization time.