The weekend before the jungle i finallh saw the big world wonder, Machu Picchu! I also explored some other cities in the Sacred Valley. In Pisac and Ollantaytambo i saw old inca ruins. The Inca palace was built with pink granite rocks and was never finised because of war against rivals. The Inca's had to leave it to go defend the most important and valuable city in that time, Cusco.

It is unbelievable how the Inca's made most of their builings. The blocks they used were really big and they didnt use cement. Their architecture and engineering on this height can almost not be understood in modern times. A lot of buildings were built for religious reasons, (temple of the sun), but also for protection and economical reasons (storage rooms on the mountains with windows so that the wind makes the goods cold and dry enough). So also their agriculture with the terraces was really interesting.

We headed by mini-van to Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Inca's. The day could not have been more beautiful. Our guide explained how the explorer, a prof from Yale, discovered M.P. in the 20. century while he was searching for the city of gold "El Dorado". A boy (now named as the first guide of M.P.) showes him the ruins that were never found by the Spanish, because it was hidden by plants and the Inca jungle. The Inca's left the place in the 1500's so that they would never find it. That is why it's 80 % original.

They had a lot of ritual buildings, like the temple of the sun, where the first light of the sun shines on a image in the morning. They could also discover which time of the year it was. They believed in several gods and holy animals. The snake represents the first unborn life, the puma the life on earth and the condor the life after death.

All those facts makes the Inca culture so interesting and i am glad i saw it with my own eyex, because it was amazing.
Next stop on my way: Bolivia!