Upon our return to Cusco from Machu Picchu we had a couple of days to relax and explore. The first day we wondered the city running in and out of gift shops. I also took the opportunity of do some service maintenance on the GS. I changed the oil on the final drive and installed new brake pads in the front.
The second day we took a walking tour of Cusco. For the Incas, Cusco was the center of their universe. It was the location of many of their temples. When the Spanish arrived in the 1500s, they proceeded to destroy some of the most incredible construction on earth. They built their churches and government buildings on top of the destroyed temples. We visited and toured the Santo Domingo Convent – a convent that is still in use today, it is constructed atop the Inca’s Temple of the Sun. In the 1950s an earthquake destroyed a large section of the convent and revealed some of the original Inca temple, which was remarkable construction.
This is an example of the walls built by the Incas. It was used as part of the foundation for the convent. The placement of massive stones on top of each other is incredible and hard to believe that it was accomplished by hand. No cement or mortar was used. The stones just lock into each other. During the earthquake, parts of the convent where destroyed while the temple walls were untouched.