yes, it was a loong second day

As I said, the weather was beautiful - just the right temperature (upper 50 to low 60) for hiking and clear skies. Well, not having a cap of some kind I spent the first night and morning of the second day suffering the effects of sun on my barely covered head. For both physiological and practical reasons I was sporting my 'adventure' haircut - a buzz - and was well burned. Hence the attractive head-dress you'll notice in this and other photos. Practical lesson - you do what you have to do.
In the background you'll notice the trail coming down off Dead Woman Pass into rocky area. That was lunch stop for Day 2. It then comes UP to what translates as "The Egg Shaped Building" or temple. We stopped here for a little look-see and photo shoot.






The square building would be of secular nature, storage or housing, and the beautiful curved structure is for religious ceremony or worship. Either has a commanding view of the area - in fact, the position of the buildings is designed to allow communication from ridge line to ridge line in case of attack or for alert. Green, Red and Yellow flags were waved to communicate different things from one end of the Inca Trail (Cusco) to the other (Machupicchu) in short order.

This is the "Inaccessible House". There is only one slender stairway up and it is surrounded by cliffs. Again, the impressive view of the valley and the peaks surrounding.

Below it was the guard house, or soldiers station.

Inside the 'house' we found the wonderful stonework and planning which allowed water to be collected off the walls to irrigate the ever present terraces and service the ceremonial and daily baths/toilets. The Incas also moved water from a small lake about a mile up the trail by means of channels cut into the rock and hollow bamboo 'pipes' buried in the ground!

In this photo one can also see a hole carved into a corner stone. This area is subject to earthquakes and it is thought that in such times ropes were tied from corner to corner to help stabilize the structure. One should also note that the outside of the walls all slope inward toward the center of the structure, and the inside of the walls slope to a lesser degree toward to outside of the structure, as well as the double interlocking position of the stones themselves making a very, very strong product. There were few, if any, right angles - all openings were trapezoidal with the base wider than the top for the same reason.