Machu Picchu, Peru
|
 |
| click to enlarge |
Around 1440, it is believed that the Pachacútec Yupanqui, the founder of the Inca Empire, built the city in the clouds known as Machu Picchu ("old mountain") in what is now Peru. This extraordinary settlement lies 2,350 m (7,710 ft) above sea level, deep in the Amazon jungle above the Urubamba River.
Forgotten for centuries by the outside world, Machu Picchu attracted international attention when it was rediscovered by the American archeologist Hiram Bingham in 1911. There are several different theories as to what Machu Picchu was: some believe it was the luxurious mausoleum (burial site) of Pachacútec, since there are remains of buildings that were covered with gold; others think that it was an Incan "llacta," a settlement built to both control the economy of the conquered regions and to protect the the top Incan aristocracy in the case of an attack. Another theory expands on this idea, seeing Machu Picchu as a country retreat for Inca nobility. It may also have been used as an observatory and for astrological ceremonies. A maximum of 750 people probably lived in the “Lost City of the Incas” at once. It is said that the silhouette of the mountain range behind Machu Picchu represents the face of the Inca looking upward towards the sky, with the largest peak, Huayna Picchu (“young mountain”) representing his nose.
Machu Picchu had a large agricultural area—with practical crops, such as corn and coca, and orchids and other decorative plants, as well as what were probably living and religious sections. In the upper urban area, there is the famous intihuatana (“the hitching post of the sun”), a stone column rising from a stone block the size of a grand piano. This solar clock exactly show the dates of the two equinoxes and other important celestial events. It is thought that, as the winter solstice neared, when the sun seemed to disappear more each day, priests would hold a ceremony to tie the sun to the stone to prevent the sun from disappearing completely.
Everything shows that Machu Picchu was quickly abandoned when the Spanish, fighting the rebellious
Incas of Vilcabamba, went into Cuzco lands. But deadly smallpox was faster than the conquistadors, and 50 percent of the population had probably been killed by the disease by 1527. The Inca government began to fail, part of the empire seceded and it fell into civil war. So, by the time Pizarro, the Inca’s conqueror, arrived in Cuzco in 1532, Machu Picchu was probably already a ghost town. |
|
Shared Right Border
|
