Let’s get to know the Hatun Rumiyoc (great rock) and the admirable Inca architecture found along almost the whole street.
This street is a single block. It is found near Cuzco’s Plaza de Armas. To get there you walk up Triunfo Street and you reach Hatun Rumiyoc. It then ends when it reaches Choquechaca Street.
It is a pedestrian street. You will find there the Archbishop’s Palace which is an art museum with a tine collection of colonial art. It was attributed in ancient time to Inka Roca, the first of the Hanan Cusco dynasty. It walls are made of perfectly fitting stones of green diorite. In the impressive weaving together of stones of different sizes and shapes you can see the twelve-angled stone. It has a perfect fit in each of its corners (angles) with other stones. You can not even put a needle between them where they join.
On the walls that sustained the Palace of Inka Roca, today you can enjoy the Inca and Republican architecture that rises from them. The three styles, Inca, colonial, and Republican, allow us to compare the abilities of the Inka Empire’s stone masons and their particular aesthetic.
Throughout the year, whether by day or by night, you can visit and pass down this historic street. With each step, if you enter from Choquechaca Street, you can see different tourist businesses, restaurants, handicraft stores, wood carvers, paintings, etc.
On the cobbled street you can also see laid out handicrafts from many different nationalities. The vendors offer on cloths the works they have made, bracelets, necklaces, weavings, rings, and other accessories.
Inka Roca Street forms a T with Hatun Rumiyoc Street. This street goes around the outside of the Archbishop’s Palace. On all its wall you can see the silhouettes of a puma, a serpent, and a qero, a ceremonial cup.
Light, as it plays on these walls of perfectly carved stones, creates a different scene with every passing hour.
For visitors and Cusqueños these wall are open books You can feel and imagine all that has taken place on this street that seems magical but is real. It stands open to the eyes of the whole world.
