Cusco, a city of about a half a million people, was the seat of power of the Incan empire from about the 13th century until the Spanish Inquisition in the 16th-century. Cusco sits in the Andes mountains an elevation of 3400 m (11,200ft). Cusco is the site of major Incan ruins like Qurikancha, the royal palace of the Incas, and Saqsaywaman, a walled complex overlooking the valley of Cusco.