Incan Temple and Catholic Church in one

Today I went to visit the Qoricancha Incan Temple which is also the Santo Domingo Church. When The Spaniards conquered Peru, they took the temple as their own. They didn't tear down the structure, but built right on top of it. They did however ransack all of the gold and silver artifacts and melted it all down. There were precious stones inlaid in the stone which were chiseled out when the Spainiards left.

During the major earthquake in the 1600's, all of the Spanish architecture crumbled, the Incan structure was the only structure left standing. You might have heard that the Incans didn't use mortar to hold the stones together. The interior stones had crevices cut in them so the stones could connect together. No one knows exactly how the Incans did it. The temple is estimated to have taken 35 years to construct.