This archeological site - 119km South-east of Cuzco on the way to Puno - was previously a shrine to Wirakocha, the Inca Creator God, who is said to have performed a miracle here. According to the legend, while Wiracocha was moving northward down the Vilcanota River, he was insulted by the local people. To demonstrate his divinity, he summoned fire down from heaven. Immediately, the hill behind was consumed by fire, which Wiracocha then proceeded to quench with his staff. The local people were suitably impressed and cowed. The fire corresponds to the flow of lava from the volcano Quisma Chata, located behind the site. These very lava flows provided Inca masons with building material for the shrine.

The site covers 80h in area, 3.5km of the enclosing wall are still preserved. The temple of Wirakocha itself consists of an imposing kallanka like hall, 92m long and almost 25m wide. It is the largest known roofed Inca halls, impressive considering the Incas did not know the arch. It covered over 2000m² and is thus the largest surviving hall built by the Incas. The roof has vanished, but much of the central wall still stands, towering over the river valley like some giant Roman aqueduct.

Its interior is divided by a stone and adobe wall some 12m high, pierced by 10 doorways. On either side of the eleven piers of the central wall were sturdy round columns -the highest surviving rises to 6m —with stone foundations and topped by adobe. These columns are unique in Inca architecture. At the top of these columns can be seen notches that once held beams which were part of a frame of roof girders.

Southeast of the Temple is a series of five-kancha style courts with twelve pairs of houses arranged along a straight avenue. All the measurements of walls and angles at Raqchi are highly accurate, so that the view down this avenue is satisfyingly symmetrical. The compounds have rows of fine niches on their inner walls, as do pairs of unabled houses on the side of each court. These tidy compounds may have housed temple priests, pilgrims arriving to worship at the shrine, or armies of soldiers and passing through the strategic Vilcanota valley.