The Cusco Valley and the Incas are synonymous in most people’s minds, but the area was populated well before they arrived on the scene and they simply built their empire on the toil and ingenuity of generations of previous cultures. The Killki culture, for instance, whose members learned to work the hard diorite and andesite stones that abound here and, although primarily agriculturists, built stone structures, dominated the scene around 700-800 AD. Some of these structures still survive, while others were incorporated into later Inca constructions – the sun temple of Koricancha, for example, seems to have been built on the foundations a Killki sun temple. Early Inca pots, too, are stylistically close to Killki-produced items, while classical Inca pots demonstrate strong similarities to ceramics produced around 1000 AD by the Lucre culture, whose main site was at Choquepugio, 35km from modern Cusco. The Lucre also used significant amounts of diorite stone in their constructions and, like the Incas later, utilized such boulders in multi-angular, earthquake-proof formations. Later Inca pottery shows a strong Wari influence.