The Korikancha was one of the most impressive buildings of Inca Cuzco according to the historians.

Koricancha is a classic example of the fusion of Inca and Western cultures, and was one of the most important temples in the Tahuantinsuyu. The temple, whose walls were said to have been sheathed in gold and silver, was dedicated to sun worship, as well as containing images of the gods of thunder and Viracocha, deities brought from various regions and the mummified bodies of Inca rulers.

Worship within the temple was reserved for the highest-ranking figures of the era, and it was visited by representatives of distant, non-Inca communities all over the empire to render homage to the gods of the Tahuantinsuyu.

Its finely polished stonewalls were used as the foundations of the Convent of Santo Domingo. The Spanish built the church and Dominican convent on top of the original structure around 1534 but they collapsed during the earthquake of 1650 and were rebuilt around 1681.

The convent possesses an art gallery of valuable seventeenth and eighteenth century canvasses.