Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu is a renowned 15th-century Inca citadel nestled in the Andes Mountains of Peru, often celebrated for its advanced dry-stone construction techniques. Built without the use of mortar, the site features an intricate layout of temples, residences, and agricultural terraces, showcasing the technological ingenuity of the Inca Empire. Originally thought to be a private retreat for Inca leaders, its exact purpose remains a subject of historical debate. The citadel was likely abandoned in the early 1500s, coinciding with the arrival of Spanish conquistadors who devastated the Inca civilization. Remarkably, Machu Picchu was largely forgotten until its rediscovery by American explorer Hiram Bingham in 1911, who brought international attention to the site. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1983, it has since become Peru's most visited tourist destination, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors annually. Tourists can reach the site via the Inca Trail or by train from Cusco, and conservation efforts are in place to protect its fragile environment and heritage. Machu Picchu stands as a significant cultural and historical landmark, reflecting both the achievements of the Inca Empire and the complex narrative of its past.
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Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu (also known as Huayna Picchu) is a fifteenth-century dry-stone Inca citadel built into the slopes of the Andes Mountains in Peru. The intricate design of the complex is usually presented as evidence of the great technological prowess of the Inca Empire. Machu Picchu is a network of temples, squares, palaces, and homes, all made from cut stone laid without mortar. Imperial Inca leaders probably used the site as a private retreat. Historians do not know exactly why the Incas abandoned Machu Picchu in the early 1500s, but the people themselves were soon obliterated by Spanish conquistadors, or conquerors, who had arrived in South America. The ruins of Machu Picchu have been designated as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site and remain a popular tourist destination.
Background
Machu Picchu is one of the best-preserved artifacts of the Inca Empire. The Inca people likely began as only a small state of people in present-day southern Peru in the early to mid-1400s. The Incas were based in the city of Cusco, which had once been the center of two earlier South American empires. Cusco's imperial past had left the city with several advanced forms of technology, principally highways and infrastructure, which the Incas exploited to grow their own state.
The Incas began to enjoy a golden era following the ascension of Pachacuti as Inca emperor in 1438. Pachacuti drove his empire to expand beyond Cusco into surrounding territories, first using diplomacy to overtake foreign peoples and then relying on force if necessary. Under Pachacuti, the Inca Empire eventually reached from present-day Ecuador in northwestern South America to Chile on the continent's southwest coast. It was during Pachacuti's rule that the Incas built Machu Picchu into the slopes of Peru's Andes Mountains, about two thousand feet above the nearby Urubamba River and eight thousand feet above sea level. (Studies have suggested that the Incas likely called the city Huayna Picchu, meaning "New Mountain;" the name Machu Picchu, or "Old Mountain," appeared later.)
The site was probably intended as an estate for Incan leaders. The complex included royal residences, religious temples, and agricultural areas for growing corn and potatoes. All of this was terraced on ascending shelves of land on the mountainside. The Incas laid all the granite stones for Machu Picchu's infrastructure without mortar. The stones had been cut and placed so precisely that even in the twenty-first century, a knife blade could not fit into the cracks between them. Machu Picchu also likely served a religious purpose for the Incas. On the annual summer solstice, the sun shone through a window in the semi-circular Temple of the Sun and perfectly aligned with the boulder around which the temple was built.
Near the Temple of the Sun was the emperor's residence. These structures were set at some distance away from other such living spaces. A stone staircase led from the emperor's residence down to a plaza, where the emperor could access a private garden and bathing space. Historians assert that the Incas used Machu Picchu as a strictly peacetime retreat. Although the site is protected by a wall and gateway, no battles between the Incas and enemy forces are believed to have occurred there.
Archeologists who later examined Machu Picchu's architecture praised the site for its technological ingenuity. At the time of its construction in the mid-1400s, the Incas had no steel, iron, or wheels, yet the complex made efficient use of the mountain terrain. It employed more than seven hundred terraces that conserved the soil and allowed rainwater to be collected and distributed throughout the site.
The Incas left Machu Picchu at some point in the early to mid-1500s. The Inca Empire was subsequently decimated by Spanish conquistadors, who had arrived in South America and began destroying the native peoples they found there. Diseases the Spanish brought with them from Europe also contributed to the Incas' rapid demise. However, the conquistadors never found Machu Picchu during their occupation of formerly Inca territory. Over the next several centuries, only a number of peasants living in the Andes Mountains knew the stone city even existed. It was only in the early twentieth century that Western explorers and historians discovered and began studying the ruins of Machu Picchu.
Overview
American explorer and Yale University professor Hiram Bingham III reached Machu Picchu accidentally in 1911, when he was in Peru searching for Vilcabamba, the last capital city of the Incas before they fell to the Spanish. He and his Peruvian guide walked up the steep mountainside for six days before reaching the site. Machu Picchu was in some disrepair, but its secrecy from the world over the previous few centuries had still preserved it fairly well.
Bingham was the first known Westerner to view this lost city of the Inca Empire. He studied the site intensely and brought some artifacts back to Yale with him. He published his account of finding Machu Picchu in a book, which became a best seller and soon attracted thousands of tourists to climb the Andes Mountains and see the Inca site for themselves. It was Bingham's work that popularized the name Machu Picchu, as opposed to Huayna Picchu.
Machu Picchu was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1983. In the twenty-first century, the Peruvian government preserves Machu Picchu for tourist access. Attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors a year, the site is the most visited attraction in Peru. Some tourists choose to hike the Inca Trail to the mountainside where Machu Picchu is located. The trail passes various other archeological sites once occupied by the Incas. Visitors may also ride a train to the site from the nearby town of Cusco. The Peruvian government closely monitors environmental decay such as erosion around the area of Machu Picchu so it can continue to preserve the historical site.
Bibliography
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