Machu Picchu,

ancient South American jewel


Machu Picchu is am ancient city located high in the Andes Mountains in modern Peru. It lies 43 miles northwest of Cuzco at the top of a ridge, hiding it from the Urabamba gorge below. The ridge is between a block of highland and the massive Huaynac Picchu, around which the Urubamba River takes a sharp bend. The surrounding area is covered in dense bush, some of it covering Pre-Colombian cultivation terraces.

Machu Picchu -which means "Old Peak"- was most likely a royal estate and religious retreat. It was built between 1460 and 1470 AD by Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, an Incan ruler. The city has an altitude of 8,000 feet, and is high above the Urubamba River canyon cloud forest, so it likely did not have any administrative, military or commercial use. After Pachacuti’s death, Machu Picchu became the property of his allus, or kinship group, which was responsible for it’s maintenance, administration, and any new construction.
Machu Picchu is comprised of approximately 200 buildings, most being residences, although there are temples, storage structures and other public buildings. It has polygonal masonry, characteristic of the late Inca period.

About 1,200 people lived in and around Machu Picchu, most of them women, children, and priests. The buildings are thought to have been planned and built under the supervision of professional Inca architects. Most of the structures are built of granite blocks cut with bronze or stone tools, and smoothed with sand. The blocks fit together perfectly without mortar, although none of the blocks are the same size and have many faces; some have as many as 30 corners. The joints are so tight that even the thinnest of knife blades can't be forced between the stones. Another unique thing about Machu Picchu is the integration of the architecture into the landscape. Existing stone formations were used in the construction of structures, sculptures are carved into the rock, water flows through cisterns and stone channels, and temples hang on steep precipices.

The houses had steep thatched roofs and trapezoidal doors; windows were unusual. Some of the houses were two stories tall; the second story was probably reached by ladder, which likely was made of rope since there weren’t many trees at Machu Picchu’s altitude. The houses, in groups of up to ten gathered around a communal courtyard, or aligned on narrow terraces, were connected by narrow alleys. At the center were large open squares; livestock enclosures and terraces for growing maize stretched around the edge of the city.

The Incas planted crops such as potatoes and maize at Machu Picchu. To get the highest yield possible, they used advanced terracing and irrigation methods to reduce erosion and increase the area available for cultivation. However, it probably did not produce a large enough surplus to export agricultural products to Cuzco, the Incan capital.

One of the most important things found at Machu Picchu is the intihuatana, which is a column of stone rising from a block of stone the size of a grand piano. Intihuatana literally means ‘for tying the sun", although it is usually translated as "hitching post of the sun". As the winter solstice approached, when the sun seemed to disappear more each day, a priest would hold a ceremony to tie the sun to the stone to prevent the sun from disappearing altogether. The other intihuatanas were destroyed by the Spanish conquistadors, but because the Spanish never found Machu Picchu, it remained intact. Mummies have also been found there; most of the mummies were women.

Few people outside the Inca’s closest retainers were actually aware of Machu Picchu’s existence. Before the Spanish conquistadors arrived, the smallpox spread ahead of them. Fifty percent of the population had been killed by the disease by 1527. The government began to fail, part of the empire seceded and it fell into civil war. So by the time Pizarro, the Inca’s conquerer, arrived in Cuzco in 1532, Machu Picchu was already forgotten.
Machu Picchu was rediscovered in 1911 by Hiram Bingham, a professor from Yale. Bingham was searching for Vilcabamba, which was the undiscovered last stronghold of the Incan empire. When he stumbled upon Machu Picchu, he thought he had found it, although now most scholars believe that Machu Picchu is not Vilcabamba. Machu Picchu was never completely forgotten, as a few people still lived in the area, where they were "free from undesirable visitors, officials looking for army ‘volunteers’ or collecting taxes", as they told Bingham.

Touring Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu tours are probably the most popular and numerous tours in all of South America. If you want to see what is hailed as one of the new 7 Wonders of the World, then you will have no problem finding someone who is willing to help you make that dream come true. You can visit Machu Picchu on your own, but if you choose to go with one of the Machu Picchu tours, you will often have the chance to experience other nearby attractions, such as the famed Inca Trail. The more extensive Machu Picchu tours can include a stop in the Amazon Rainforest, trips to other ruins, and visits to cities and towns found in and around the Sacred Valley. With Peru tours being so expansive and plentiful, finding one that includes Machu Picchu is a pretty easy task. Machu Picchu tours are a great way to learn about the history of the Inca while you explore remnants of the world they left behind.

Thanks to the internet, you can find a number of listings for agencies that specialize in Machu Picchu travel, and booking your tour ahead of time can take a lot of the stress out of your Peru vacation. There is such a wide array of Machu Picchu tours available, but you should be able to narrow down the best ones for your wants and needs in no time. Be sure to check the options that pop up from time to time for discount Machu Picchu tours, some of which include stops to other interesting destinations around the country, such as the Nazca Lines and the ancient city of Chan Chan. If you are interested in the tours that have you flying over Machu Picchu in a helicopter, those have been suspended indefinitely, probably due to the fact that having loud choppers overhead sort of dulls an otherwise magical experience.

If you want to experience the Inca Trail, which ends at Machu Picchu, a Machu Picchu trek might be the tour for you. Generally, Inca Trail treks last from 2-7 days, and the end reward is worth every bit of it, not that the stunning scenery along the way is anything to sneeze at. A top Machu Picchu trek for those who arrive at the ruins involves climbing Huayna Pichhu, where the views of the ruins below are fantastic, to say the least. Most Machu Picchu tours, or Peru tours for that matter, include transfer to your hotel once you arrive at the airport. Your hotel is usually part of the package, so as you can imagine, the more you spend, the better the hotel will be. With transportation, accommodations, and even meals planned and taken care of, you can worry about other things, like how you are going to afford developing all the photos you are bound to take.

If you have room in your budget, you might be interested in booking one of the Machu Picchu luxury tours. Machu Picchu luxury tours can include such destinations as Lake Titicaca and Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands.

Machu Picchu luxury tours will have you staying in the finest hotels in Cusco, where you will then generally tour the Sacred Valley with your own personal chauffeur. Once you get to the Machu Picchu ruins, you will check into the dazzling Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge, which is the only hotel found at the site. Gourmet meals and relaxing spa treatments are part of the deal at this exclusive lodge, and you will enjoy the chance to visit the ruins early in the morning before the other tourists arrive.