Cusco is a region in Peru. It is bordered by the Ucayali Region on the north; the Madre de Dios and Puno regions on the east; the Arequipa Region on the south; and the Apurímac, Ayacucho and Junín regions on the west. Its capital is the city of Cusco, the capital of the old Inca Empire.

Geography

The Cusco region has a very diverse landscape where elevated alignments of mountains with vast altiplanos and plateaus with slight surfaces and deep valleys and canyons are mixed.

Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Inca

The Eastern Andes mountain range, which is the spinal column of this region, has been strongly eroded by the complex system of courses of waters draining toward the jungle as well as glaciers. Nowadays only three chains of mountains are left from the old Eastern mountain rage which are oriented from the southeast to northeast part, such as Vilcabamba which defines the hydrographic systems of the Urubamba and Apurímac rivers with elevated peaks like Salkantay and Pumasillo; the Vilcanota with its most important peak, the Ausangate, which is also the region's highest peak; and the Paucartambo with smaller dimensions than the previous channels. Also, Cusco has alignments of mountains with smaller elevations and local characteristics like the residual highlands which originate from the wearing of the old andean altiplano caused by strong erosion of rivers due to the high andean lifting. The two most important highland zones are: Vilcabamba enclosing the valley of Cusco and whose most important peak is Huanacaure; and the Mountains of Cusco, located at the north of the city, whose highest peak is the Pachatusan.

Like in all Andean regions, the main rivers and its affluents have formed deep valleys and canyons, among the most important ones are those formed by the Urubamba, Apurímac and Paucartambo rivers.

The valley of Urubamba shows alluvial terraces in its thick soils where a strong population dedicated to agriculture is established. The Urubamba river, under 2000 m, has formed a deep and narrow canyon which reaches all its beauty close to Machu Picchu, showing a rare landscape of bends. Due to the diversity of soil altitudes, the region has a great variety of climates and landscapes, which have strongly influenced on agriculture and the distribution of population.

Political division

The region is divided into 13 provinces (provincias, singular: provincia), which are composed of 107 districts (distritos, singular: distrito). The provinces, with their capitals in parenthesis, are:

• Acomayo (Acomayo )
• Anta (Anta )
• Calca (Calca )
• Canas (Yanaoacá )
• Canchis (Sicuani )
• Chumbivilcas (Santo Tomás )
• Cusco (Cusco)
• Espinar (Yauri )
• La Convención (Quillabamba )
• Paruro (Paruro )
• Paucartambo (Paucartambo )
• Quispicanchi (Urcos )
• Urubamba (Urubamba )