Cuzco, or Qosq’o in Quechua, meaning “navel of the world,” was the military, political and cultural capital of the mighty Inca regime. These days it is the epicentre of a perhaps greater and more populous empire: tourism.

Thankfully, its proud history has not yet been overshadowed by the latest invading hordes. Legend has it that the original Incas rose from Lake Titicaca and planted a staff in the ground in the centre of Cuzco, so beginning a dynasty. Anyone doing likewise today would probably have a sign on top advertising trips to Machu Picchu. But if you can wade through the cigarette vendors, slip past the postcard sellers, swerve round the restaurant hawkers, and side-step the budding travel agents, you’ll realise that you are walking along the streets of a real Inca city.

Believe me, it’s worth it. It’s a breathtaking city, in more ways than one. At over 3,200 meters, getting any kind of oxygen at all into your lungs can be a challenge at first. But what’s left in them will be robbed by the extraordinary sights and sounds of the oldest continuously inhabited city in the Americas.

Designed by the great Inca Pachacutek in the shape of a jaguar, the conquistadors gave the city quite a facelift after the conquests. But the Spaniards were wise enough to preserve the foundations of the great Inca stonemasons when they razed Cuzco, building on top of them. So now, everywhere you go in the city, you pass original block-work topped with colonial splendour. It is just one of the casual pleasures of this ancient city that preserves its charm in the face of a modern invasion.