Museo de Sitio Qorikancha

On Avenida El Sol, beside the Qorikancha temple site in Cusco, this small underground museum traces the city’s past through five rooms. Its collection includes pre-Inca, Inca and colonial ceramics, metalwork, textiles, paintings, sculptures and musical instruments. The displays give a chronological view of civilization in Cusco, with objects largely recovered during excavations at Qorikancha from 1992 to 1995. A guide can add context to the artifacts and the changes that followed the Spanish conquest. The museum is separate from the temple ruins.

Artifacts from Qorikancha

Many of the objects on display came from excavations carried out at Qorikancha between 1992 and 1995. Across five rooms, the collection spans pre-Inca, Inca and colonial periods. Ceramics and fragments sit alongside examples of metalwork, textiles, painting, sculpture and musical instruments.

The exhibits are arranged to explain the chronological development of civilization in Cusco. A guided visit can help connect the objects to the city’s history and to the cultural changes that came with Spanish rule.

A museum beneath the site

The museum is underground beside the Qorikancha complex, along the busy Avenida El Sol. It is a separate attraction from the temple ruins, so check which ticket you need for each visit.

One display concerns deliberately reshaped skulls from the Inca period. The shapes were associated with social class; examples include elongated forms and more elaborate heart-shaped forms. Photography is prohibited inside the museum.