12:30pm 28th September, Cusco City tour
we headed to the Temple of the Sun.
Seeing what exists does not compare with letting the eye of the mind see the way it used to be. The granite stonewalls used to be covered with sheets of gold - each weighing 2 kilograms. The courtyards had life sized sculptures of animals fashioned in pure gold. Much of this gold was given away to the Spaniards as ransom for the return of the Inka Atahualpa
The temple itself is a shrine for Virococha - the creator and Inti - the sun. The Inkan trapezoidal form is abundant in doors, windows and niches.
Stones strewn throughout the structure, show the hidden joins that allows Inkan to build great walls without mortar. it is amazing how such smart people could not figure out a script for their language.
In the 17th century, The Spaniards systematically dismantled the temple and build a rather ugly cathedral 
weaving the original Inka structure where ever they could into the colonial architecture.
It is amazing, this bleak compulsion to overwrite somebody else's work - almost like a giant graffiti.
The other such atrocity that quickly comes to mind is the Abu el- Haggag mosque (picture to the right) built atop the columns of the Luxor temple.
The evening
