Located at 11 151 feet / 3 399 meters above sea level, Cusco is not a city that one easily passes through. One could easily stay there to live, and in fact many travelers have done so. It has preserved the splendor of its ancient imperial Inca past, over which the Spanish erected their dazzling colonial architecture. At night the city wears its cosmopolitan face and the urban landscape takes on new life. Only Cusco can boast such admirable contrasts: from majestic Inca walls to beautiful baroque churches and the melancholy light of old plazas. Beyond the city of Cusco, the Sacred Valley of the Incas offers visitors charming villages where lifestyles have changes little over the centuries, along with the megalithic vestiges of the great empire established by the Incas.