Mystifying the Past: Peruvian Walls

 Here is a very nice photo on social media of a very nice wall but it seems there is not enough interest in that as such. So... (Anyextee @Anyextee ·Aug 6) "Of all the ancient mysteries around the world, nothing compares to the polygonal stonework of Peru. For me, it’s more mind-bending than anything I’ve encountered in Egypt [...]").

Wall at Sacsayhuaman (Anyextee)

Why is the categorisation always a clickbait "mystery" (or "enigma")? It is aesthetically pleasing, and I bet when they finished it, all the blokes in the erection gangs had a big get together, invited their wives, kids and mates to come to admire their achievement and proudly showed them "the ones I did". Are "doing a job well/carefully" or "pride in one's work" really now SUCH foreign concepts to us today that we have to make up nonsense to explain why a lot of effort was put into them to get them 'just right' and thus they look so good?

With reference to all the nonsense about "stone softening plants" (how do you lift a floppy stone that size?), I'll just put up her this photo from the same website:

Sacsayhuaman, showing clear traces of shaping by pounding (Anyextee)

and this one from Tarawasi (Tarahuasi) in the Andes mountains between Saqsaywayman and Machu Picchu for its attractiveness of the flower pattern: 

Tarawasi (Instagram)

I'm surprised none of the pseudoarchaeologists has pointed out the "amazing mystery" that this flower has eight petals - like Dryas octopetala,* the marker species of the Younger Dryas episode !

*Mountain Avens, Eightpetal Mountain-Avens, White Dryas (or White Dryad). I have two growing on my balcony, finished flowering a couple of weeks ago.