Machu Pichu - Peru

Did you know that Incas never actually lived in Machu Pichu – that it was built as a retreat (and other theories abound) – but no one really knows why it was built (at great cost even with expendable labor) and why it was abandoned!?

I like to think that, knowing of their eventual demise – they built a monument - a reminder of our mortality

As I gaze at the ruins – these words come to mind –

"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

Monuments, more often than not, have their foundation in epic tragedy– so painful that the only way to reflect the pain is to carve it into the very bedrock that created it – Machu Pichu foretells it – the end of a great civilization

I am glad I saw it, but I was not going to desecrate this splendid memorial by walking over it