Location: Over the base of this precinct, Santo Domingo convent and temple were built which is located in Cusco, in the Plaza de Santo Domingo (Santo Domingo Square).

Opening Hours:
Monday to Saturday: 08:30 to 18:30
Sundays: 14:00 to 17:00 hrs.
Price:(The tourism ticket doesn’t include it)
Adult:S/.10.00
Students: S/. 50.00

Meaning of the name
Qori means gold worked and its Spanish form is cori. Kancha means fence limited by walls. So we have the corresponding name approximately “place limited which has gold”, translating to its literal form. This name hasn’t been changed it keeps without variants since the Inka Time. The first Spanish that arrive to Cusco visited this important place and they found that this name was like it.

If Cusco was the navel of the World, according to the conception Inca, the Qorikancha was the religious center of Cusco, is worth saying, the center of the center, as much in the geographic aspect as in the religious and politic. From here started four of the main treks that lead to the four main parts of the Universe; it was the residence of the Gods and Guacas in the Inka period.

In all the important architectonic centers built for the Incas, it was impossible for the temple of the Sun not to be there, buildings made out of rocks that are well polish just like the temple of the Qoricancha where you can see from the front of the building how well polish all of the rocks are.

This temple was one of the first places the Spaniards had in mind to rob, being that one could find objects made out of gold and silver that were used as offerings to their gods.

It said that the walls had little plates of gold, that were stolen by the Spanish, having so much thirst for gold and silver came in to all the sacred places and took all the decorations and offers it had, places like the Qoricancha and saving just the offerings that were buried in temples that is in the gardens of the centers built to the cult of gods, like Qoricancha.

In the period of the Incas was the most important religious center, here they paid  cult to the main gods like the Sun, the Moon, The Ray, the Rainbow and the Stars, all of them had particular chapels like:

The temple of the Sun.- Was the main in the entire Qorikancha, it was settle from west to east, occupying more than half of the actual church of Santo Domingo.

The temple of the Moon.- Is the one that is closest to the temple of the Sun, it couldn’t be any other way, being that the moon was considered the wife of the Sun

The temple of Venus and the Stars.- Another one of the chapels, the closest to the moon, it was dedicated to the bright star of Venus and the seven Sawhorses and all the rest of the stars in common.

The temple of Illapa or Chuki Illapa.- this words mean at the same time ray, lighting, and thunder; all natural phenomena considered by inkas like divine, bred celestial beings of the Sun.

The temple of Kùychi or Rainbow.- Located to the north of the temple of Illapa and in front of the temple of the Moon. In this temple they celebrated cult to the Rainbow, according to the old believes it came from the Sun.

Tha Qoricancha Museum