The Temple of the Sun...

was the largest and the most ornate of its epoch : its great stone walls measured 140 meters long and 135 meters wide. The Spanish chroniclers have abundantly described its fabulous riches, before them being melted or scattered: the perimeter of the temple, with its blue painted walls, was decorated by an enormous cornice of gold as large as "two palms and four fingers", altars, doors, statues were decorated with plates of gold and silver, even sometimes with inlays of precious gems which, day and night, reflected the lights of the torches or the sun itself.