Temple of the Moon

This guide to the Temple of the Moon in Cusco starts with a number that won't add up: zero blocks, zero stones stacked, because the entire site was carved directly out of a single limestone hill. Killke masons first opened a natural cleft in the rock, and centuries later Inca builders kept polishing what was already there rather than rebuilding it in their own style, cutting niches, stairs and a crescent wall into the living stone. A gap in the rock ceiling opens straight above the carved altar, and five centuries of rain have worn some of the carvings almost featureless.