This August my family and I went to Perú for a post-graduation trip. We were going for a friend’s wedding and turned it into a 3 week trip. Although I lived in Perú for 2 years following high school I stayed on the coast and never made it further inland to Cuzco. On this trip we flew to 13,000 feet of mountainous altitude and the heart of the ancient Incan empire. While touring the Andean ruins I was impressed with the practicality and attention to detail of their incredible stonework. The quality of work depended on the structure’s purpose and for that reason we only have remnants of the most important buildings in all but a few cities that were able to escape the Conquistadors’ attention. Machu Picchu was largely untouched by the western world until Hiram Bingham rediscovered it in 1911 so the stonework used in different classes of society still remain.