Machu Picchu is a city of amazing history and unsolved mysteries, included in the list of 7 new wonders of the world. We invite you to find out why he was included in this list
It is still not known exactly when the last inhabitants of this lost city died, but we almost certainly know that no one even suspected the existence of a mysterious settlement high in the Peruvian mountains for more than three centuries!
The name of the city of Machu Picchu literally translates as “old mountain”. The settlement is located on an almost flat area of one of the many mountains of Peru, surrounded by other, no less beautiful peaks.
Neither the Spanish conquistadors who captured Peru in the 16th century, nor those who came here after them, nor the Incas themselves, who lived in Machu Picchu, left any written evidence that the city exists. Most likely, the Spaniards could not even think that there was an Inca settlement on one of the mountains. The abandoned ancient city was discovered only at the beginning of the 20th century …
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Among archaeologists around the world, the legend about the mysterious city of the Incas in Peru has long wandered, but the American Hiram Bingham was not satisfied with just one legend - he spent several years searching for Machu Picchu, until July 24, 1911, he was finally unlucky. According to legend, climbing one of the mountains, Bingham with a Peruvian porter stumbled upon two Indian families guarding the "lost city". One of these families had a little boy who, having received a one salt coin (the equivalent of 30 cents) as a gift from the professor, showed him an overgrown and almost indistinguishable path to the ruins of an ancient city on the top of a mountain hidden behind dense greenery. Thus, for just a third of a dollar, the archaeologist found the way to the mythical citadel, which survived the heyday and decline of the Inca civilization!
It is strange that even after the professor's discovery, no one visited Machu Picchu for more than three decades - until an archaeological expedition working nearby stumbled upon the ancient Inca Road, leading through the valley straight to the city.
Incidentally, Machu Picchu is not the real name of an Inca settlement. This name was given to the city by the locals, but we will most likely never know the real name, just as we will not know how many Incas lived in this fortress and why they even needed to build a city so far from the center of their state, and even on top of a mountain, at an altitude of 2057 meters …
We can only draw conclusions about the size of the population based on modern studies of the ruins of Machu Picchu, according to which the city consisted of about two hundred buildings made of well-worked and tightly fitted stone slabs.
According to the internal layout and other, smaller details, archaeologists came to the conclusion that most of these structures served as warehouses, residences, temples, etc. According to rough estimates, more than a thousand Incas lived in and around the city.
The Incas worshiped the sun god Inti and cultivated crops on special terraces.
Palace buildings are easy to distinguish from ordinary houses - they are given out by the perfectly processed stone slabs from which they are built.
Some kind of ancient device, perhaps for collecting rainwater, or washing something.
According to the tiny amounts of information that have been found to date about the lost city, only a select few could enter Machu Picchu - the highest nobility, priests and their retinue, as well as the best artisans, because not everyone can harvest a good harvest at an altitude of more than 2 kilometers. In addition to these people, mamakunas were admitted here - selected virgins who devoted their entire lives to serving the god Inti.
Tower of the Sun.
The Incas had a tradition to create each city in the form of some creature. If you believe this, then Machu Picchu from a bird's eye view should be like a condor. Apparently, this is how the Incas wanted to show or prove something to their gods.
Archaeologists hoped to find answers to many questions by excavating at Machu Picchu, but eventually stumbled upon even more questions. In the city, 173 skeletons were found, of which one and a half hundred are female, while not a single valuable item was found with them. In addition, there was another burial, different from the others - Bingham called it the tomb of the high priest - here they found the remains of a woman with syphilis, a small dog, several ceramic objects, a pair of skewers and clothes made of wool.
The farmers of Machu Picchu cultivated more than five hectares of land on special narrow terraces, arranged right on the slopes of the mountains, and the terraces and the stone steps leading to them were made for centuries - they have survived to us practically unchanged.
Terraces of Machu Picchu.
The city itself was divided into sectors: a district of temples, a residential sector, dungeons and a cemetery.
The Temple of the Three Windows, a key building in all Inca rituals, has also survived to this day. The sun's rays falling on the square through the windows of the temple symbolize the three founders of the Inca empire, who entered this world, according to legend, through these very windows.
Above the Temple of Three Windows, there is a small ancient observatory with an interesting Intivatana stone, which apparently served as a kind of sundial for the Inca priests.
The Intivatana also has another name - "the control point of the Sun"
Some buildings in Machu Picchu were two-story, with pointed thatched roofs. The stones fit together with amazing precision.
An amazing feature of Machu Picchu is that the Incas built the entire city without using any bonding mixtures such as cement - all buildings are held by their own weight! In case of earthquakes (which happen here quite often), the Incas left special cracks in the masonry during the construction, and the walls themselves were pushed in at an angle - thanks to such simple actions, they managed to build a mountain citadel, which stood safe and sound for many centuries, without even moving!
Someone from archaeologists once put forward a theory according to which the well-being of the owner of the house can be judged by how tightly the stones fit in his masonry. This was also one of the factors that allowed the researchers to judge that not everyone was allowed to Machu Picchu.
Historians today do not know so much about the Incas, but there is still some information, for example, we know with a certain degree of probability that in the traditions of the Incas there were no human sacrifices - only animals were sacrificed to the gods, although quite a lot. In Machu Picchu, for example, white lamas were sacrificed in the morning and afternoon, and black in the evening.
From Machu Picchu, a steep path leads to the top of the neighboring Huayna Picchu mountain, from where a beautiful panorama of the Urubamba river valley opens. At the foot of Huayna Picchu is the Moon Palace.
Recently, the ancient city of the Incas was visited by up to 2,000 tourist destinations per day, forcing UNESCO to demand a reduction in the number of visits to 800. To provide recreational support for this difficult-to-reach historical monument, railway tracks were laid in the neighboring town of Aguas Calientes, now taking 10 trains a day. and there is a bus from the railway station to Machu Picchu. Initially, it was planned to build a cable car here, but UNESCO was categorically against this, because and without it, the flow of tourists already has to be reduced
By the way, the Inca trail to Machu Picchu along the Urubamba River through several passes has survived to this day, but if you want to walk along it, it will take at least a few days …