Sacred garden of the Coricancha temple. Spanish chroniclers describe it as a garden of golden plants with leaves of beaten gold, stems of silver, solid gold corn-cobs and 20 life-size llamas and their herders all in solid gold. Also many other animals like colibris, snakes, butterflies and even spiders formed a detailed garden of gold and silver. Gold was considered the "sweat pearls of the sun" and silver the "tears of the moon".🌞🌚

Coricancha "The Golden Temple" with Convent of Santo Domingo above. The Coricancha was the most important temple in the Inca Empire. It was destroyed during the Conquista. It must have been very impressive with lots of gold decorations. The remains form the foundation of the convent. There is a museum inside which also includes art collections (Cusco School and contemporary art). The green area is the sacred garden. The man in the white shirt is just leaving a small archaelogical museum, which is located directly under the garden.