Inka Museum

Inka Museum is located in the old town of Cusco, just a few minutes' walk from the Plaza de Armas. The building itself is a highlight—the colonial-era Admiral's House. This courtyard is said to have been the residence of the Inca ruler Huáscar, with Inca-era stone walls layered beneath the mansion. The courtyard is surrounded by semicircular arcades, and the facade features stone-carved coats of arms, making the building itself a tangible lesson in the overlapping of two eras. The museum displays tens of thousands of artifacts chronologically, ranging from pre-Inca cultures such as Chavín, Nazca, and Wari, all the way to the rise of the Inca Empire and the arrival of the colonial era.

Among the collection, the sets of keros—painted wooden cups used by the Inca for corn beer during rituals and feasts—are particularly worth a close look, as their patterns remain clear to this day. In addition, there are well-preserved textiles, gold and silver artifacts, and pottery. In the reconstructed Inca tomb, mummies are displayed alongside burial offerings, directly showcasing Inca burial customs and concepts of life and death. The skull specimens with trepanation marks, the three-dimensional models presenting the different ecological zones of Cusco at various altitudes, and the drawings by chronicler Guaman Poma depicting Inca history are also worth slowing down to appreciate.