Photo of the Day – Llaqtapata Ruins on the Inca Trail – near Cusco, Peru

These ruins are the first big set of ruins you encounter on the Inca Trail. I remember when we first saw these I was pretty amazed, but knew that it was only going to make Machu Picchu that much more impressive. The ruins were very far away from where we were hiking, but with the power of the Nikon 18-200 telephoto lens, we were able to bring the ruins a bit closer.

One of the more impressive parts of this ruin to me are the terraces that wrap around the mountain. They are mesmerizing in some way to me. In fact, if you look at the bottom-right of the photo, there are two large terraces leading down to the farming lands below. This is not only amazing in general, but even more amazing to think it was built 500 years ago without a single piece of machinery.