After the long and exhausting visit to Machu Picchu yesterday, I didn't feel up to much today. So except for sleeping in the morning and boarding a bus to Nazca in the evening, I only managed a visit to Qorikancha in between.
Qorikancha is said to have been the site of Cusco's most splendid temple, full of valuable religious idols and with walls covered in sheets of gold. Naturally, the spaniards couldn't bear such a temple in their conquered city, so they dismantled it and gave the grounds to Dominican monks. These promptly built a church on top and painted the inca walls with colonial patterns.
Out back is a garden decorated with "tired" stones - pieces of inca masonry that have been torn out of their original context and are now stones without walls.
Another exhibit in the museum explained the inca's relationship with the night sky. Apparently, they not only recognized constellations consisting of stars, but also constellations consisting of dark areas. I wonder why we don't do that? This painting shows some of the dark constellations they saw in the milky way, among them a snake, a llama, and a shepherd:
Qorikancha is said to have been the site of Cusco's most splendid temple, full of valuable religious idols and with walls covered in sheets of gold. Naturally, the spaniards couldn't bear such a temple in their conquered city, so they dismantled it and gave the grounds to Dominican monks. These promptly built a church on top and painted the inca walls with colonial patterns.
Out back is a garden decorated with "tired" stones - pieces of inca masonry that have been torn out of their original context and are now stones without walls.
Another exhibit in the museum explained the inca's relationship with the night sky. Apparently, they not only recognized constellations consisting of stars, but also constellations consisting of dark areas. I wonder why we don't do that? This painting shows some of the dark constellations they saw in the milky way, among them a snake, a llama, and a shepherd:
