The alleged architect of much of what we know as the Incan creations was allegedly Pake Kutek.  He clearly had a hand in designing the ramparts known as the Puma or as Saqsaywaman (pronounced sexy woman) and Machupicchu.  The overview and plans required for this 109 year project outlived him and the works have outlived generations.

The head of the puma is in the ruins above, the heart in the city square of Cusco.  If you look through the drizzle in the images you can see the city of Cusco in the valley below.  The walls are laid out in a lightning strike form to offset earthquakes and thunder storms.

If you look at the scale of these walls you can see that they were designed to hold four large towers creating the head form of the Puma.  The spaniards ordered the towers dismantled so the stones could be used in the city for cathedral building.  Each of the stones weighed between 1 and 13 tons and still bear the shreds of cedar logs used for rollers.

 

All of this would be history at its most boring, but the alpaca nursing on the hillside, the farmer tending flock, the guide being passionate about the stories of the past each put us into the nurturing present.  History has lessons but even the sexy lady of the architect has a place in the story.