We walked down the path to a tentlike structure.  The sun heated the stones all around us drenching the landscape with light.  The bright azure sea provided a cool backdrop to the otherwise tan landscape.  Showing our ticket at the entrance, we made our way into the enclosure.  Small lizards darted past us. Dust was kicked up by our feet and it felt like we became part of an archeological dig.  We stepped through doorways of stone, alters with designs came into view. Passages to other part invited us to explore. Views of the sea peaked through.  Immense stones as lintels to doorways stood for thousands of years and we walked under them.  This place was built before the pyramids, before Stonehenge, before metal tools or wheels.  The large stones were chipped, dragged, shoved into place.  We think we can do so much because of all the knowledge and tools we have and there are things that are remarkable that we have built yet I find this place even more outstanding because of the things they didn't have. I look at the way this was built with stones overlapping stones so that weight keeps them from collapsing. It reminds me of building with Legos as a kid and learning how to place blocks for the roof and not have it cave inwards.  Then there are the designs decorating the block.  It tells me that though something is utilitarian it can be beautiful as well.  That we have something in us that wants beauty and function.  The conjecture is that some of it is a calendar but how it works they don't know.  Still, it is done with beauty.  Statues have been found and there is this talent to be admired. There were artisans then that could see something in the stone and shape it.  As we left this ruin and walked to another, I processed what I had seen.  The next ruin was similar, reinforcing my thoughts.  I started to wonder, what happened to these people?  They were artistic, analytical, dedicated, builders?  These temples were created with care.  How does something like that get forgotten, covered by time and then rediscovered thousands of years later? Did this group sail away?  Were they taken away? Did they flee? Or did they die out? It makes me think about now and the future.  Will our cities one day be covered by time only to be rediscovered later?  There are towns now that are "ghost" towns yet they will not stand as long because wood rots and falls apart.  Stone lasts, but still it will wear away given the time. As we walked away, we thought and talked pondering so much about humanity, about ourselves, about our faith. I guess that is what travel does, it makes you take a breath, learn, explore and question. This was just day one of our trip and yet I had so much more to discover.