Cusco’s rainbow flag catches almost every first-time visitor off guard. It’s not a pride banner. The city formally adopted it in 1978 as a symbol of Tahuantinsuyo, the Inca empire whose capital was Cusco.
The design — seven rainbow stripes stacked horizontally — draws on the wiphala, an Andean pattern older than the Inca themselves. It flies beside the Peruvian flag above the Plaza de Armas and most civic buildings.
Peruways books Cusco city tours, Sacsayhuamán, the Sacred Valley circuit and Machu Picchu as a single trip, with local guides who know the civic details — including why that flag is everywhere.
Start at Peruways.
