Machu Picchu was clearly intended to be a sacred place. It was a stage, a set for conducting large, elaborate ceremonies like the Inti Raymi and for smaller private rituals in very special places, located throughout the estate. There is the so-called Temple of the Sun with its round wall, and like other temples, it contains a special boulder with a carved line that provides a unique shadow on June 21. Beneath the Temple of the Sun is a sacred cave with a white stone at its entrance carved into a step pattern. The step pattern was somehow sacred and is part of the famous Andean cross that had been used as a part of sacred art in Peru back to the earliest times. There is the pyramid, Intiwatana, carved from a natural knoll on the ridge top. On top of it, are stones carved into various shapes that are somehow linked from a visual standpoint to the surrounding sacred mountains. In fact, all the religious sites are linked to the surroundings and to each other in a sacred geometry that is unknown today.