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Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu, Inca sacred site.

Machu Picchu (Quechua: Machu Pikchu, "Old Peak") and is a pre-Columbian Inca site located 2400 meters (7875 feet) above sea level. It is situated on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley in Peru, which is 80Km (50 miles) northwest of Cusco. Machu Picchu is often referred to as the Lost City of the Incas.

It was built around the year 1450, but abandoned a hundred years later, at the time of the Spanish conquest.It was forgotten for centuries but came back into the light in 1911, being discovered by Hiram Bingham who was an American historian. Now it is an important tourist destination.


Machu Picchu was built in the classical Inca style, with polished dry stone walls. The primary buildings are the The Temple of the Sun and the Room of Three Windows. This is the sacred site.

Why was it built? The theory is that the settlement was built to control economy of the Incan conquered regions. Or it might well have been built as a prison for an evily select few who committed heinous crimes against the Inca society. The most accepted theory is that of a retreat or estate for the Incan Emperor, Pachacuti.

The city is saddled between two mountains, with a commanding view down two valleys and a nearly impassable mountain at its back. It has a natural water supply from springs that could not easily be blocked, and enough land to grow food for about 40 times the number of people that lived there. The hillsides have been terraced, not only to provide for more room to grow crops but too also make it harder for invaders to ascend. The ultimate plan in its design was to make it a highly defendable place.

The style of construction is known as Ashlars in which blocks of stone are cut and fit together without the use of any mortar. The fit is so fine that not even a knife blade can fit between the rocks. As the land is prone to earthquakes, the construction style, without mortar made it stronger and safer from collapsing.

Exactly how it was constructed is a mystery as the Incas did not seem to make use of the wheel. It is thought that it was sheer man power; pushing the stones up the slopes and levering them into place.


One of the most important finds is the Intihuantana, which is a column of stone rising from a block of stone the size of a grand piano. Intihuantana literally means "Hitching Post of the Sun". As Winter solstice approached, when the Sun seemed to be disappearing more each day, a priest would hold a ceremony to tie the Sun to the stone to prevent it from going away altogether.

Also Mummies have been found there, most of them were women.

Most other Incan sites were destroyed by the Spanish conquistadors, but the Spanish never found Machu Picchu so it remained intact. It is thought that few people outside the Incan's closest retainers were actually aware of Machu Picchu's existence.

It was not only buildings that suffered from the Spanish; as in places, even before the conquistadors actually arrived there, smallpox had spread ahead of them. Fifty percent of the population had been killed by the disease by 1527. The Incan government began to fail; parts of the Incan empire failed and fell into civil war. So, by the time Pizarro, the Incan's final conqueror, arrived in Cuzco in 1532, Machu Picchu was already forgotten.


by lynnisakriz

With thanks and acknowlegements to Wikipedia.org for the resource and graphics.

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