In 1911, for several days, Hiram Bingham's expedition, accompanied by the Indians, made its way through the jungle to the foot of the Machu Picchu mountain in Peru. The ancient lost city of Machu Picchu with its undisturbed observatories, temples and houses appeared before the researchers in complete safety. These places have not been visited for a long time.
Machu Picchu is indeed an important architectural monument of South America, and in 2007 it received the status of a new wonder of the world. Since the time of the sons of the Sun of the Incas, the city has come down to us safe and sound, and its beauty is incomparable with many other cities around the world.
History of the construction of the city of Machu Picchu
The name of Machu Picchu was given to the city by its discoverer, while the present has disappeared forever in the memory of centuries. The city is located 120 kilometers from the famous Cusco near the Urubamba River. It is believed that Machu Picchu was built by Pachacuti, who reigned in 1438-1471. At first, Machu Picchu played a secondary role, but after the capture of the Spaniards, Cuzco became the main and last city of the Incas, where their civilization came to naught.
The Spaniards never visited here, but still civilization began to fade away. Conservation from other settlements, the gradual overgrowth of the city reduced its population. And so it went on until the last inhabitant of it died. Bingham found several dozen skeletons here, most of which were female.
One has only to marvel at the skill of the ancient builders. The buildings, located in a hard-to-reach place, are at different heights, and more than a hundred stone stairs had to be made to connect them. All structures of the city are made in cyclopean masonry - the stones are held only by their own weight. Due to the unevenness of the terrain and the presence of sometimes strong slopes, the stones have special bulges for greater stability. It is also worth noting that all these stone colossus, according to the level of development of the Incas, were erected exclusively by human forces without the use of special devices.
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Description of the districts of the ancient city
The central area of the city is the Acropolis. Here is the Temple of the Sun of Ichiutan, the only surviving temple dedicated to the supreme deity of the Incas. There is also the temple of the high priest and the temple of the Three Windows, named after three large windows in the masonry.
Temple of Three Windows
The next quarter is Royal. Its construction dates back to the 15th - 16th centuries. There is a temple-fortress of Torreon, a semicircular tower with many small altars. Not far from it is the Princess Palace, where the Inca queen Koya or the daughter of the Supreme Inca lived. It is believed that the Inca himself lived here in a palace consisting of two buildings. But this is only a guess, and the mandatory Inca residence at Machu Picchu has not been confirmed.
The next block is allocated for ordinary houses. Behind the ridge of stone ramparts is the artisans' quarter. Further away is the building where the judges and executioners were supposedly located. Not far from here is the semblance of a city jail with hooks for chaining prisoners.
Caves with burials begin behind the prison. The exquisite decoration of the cave rooms suggests that noble people of the city, and perhaps the entire Inca empire, were buried here, whose mummies could have been transferred from the plundered Cuzco.
Machu Picchu - wonder of the world
On a flat plateau surrounded by high mountains on the west coast of South America, lies the ancient city of the Inca civilization Machu Picchu, named in 2007 as one of the great wonders of the world. The lost city of the Incas, as scientists and researchers often call it, is located high above sea level among light soaring clouds above the valley of the Urubamba River in the Republic of Peru.
For the first time, the opportunity to fully explore the ancient walled city arose in 1911 thanks to the American expedition of Yale University led by Hiram Bingham. The city is an orderly architecture built using stone blocks without the use of mortar. In the buildings, many important details were provided, such as special gaps and a slight slope of the walls for seismic resistance of structures, convenient canals and a clear layout of buildings, most of which were two-story.
City in the sky
The ancient city of Machu Picchu is located on the crest of a mountain range. At an altitude of 2.5 km, it rises majestically over the valley of the Urubamba River. Despite the fact that Machu Picchu is translated from the Quechua language as "old peak", it is often called "the city in the sky" or "the city among the clouds."
Archaeologists suggest that the sacred city of the Incas was built in 1440 and existed until 1532, when Spanish troops invaded their empire. After 1532, the history of Machu Picchu ends abruptly. All its inhabitants disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
For more than four centuries no man has set foot in this place. In the 20th century, peasants settled in its ruins, wishing to live a calm, free life without ruining taxes and incessant wars. Rumors of an abandoned city in the mountains spread slowly but surely.
In 1911, accompanied by a local guide and a team, the American explorer Hiram Bingham visited this place and what he saw amazed him to the core: palace buildings, a whole complex of two-story residential buildings, a square, an altar for sacrifices and even a semblance of an observatory.
The technical progress made by the Incas during the heyday of their culture was at a high level. This is most clearly illustrated by a network of roads that, in terms of the size of the covered territory and the level of skill of the creators, can be compared with the road system of Ancient Rome.
The "ruins" turned out to be a city. Later it became known that the Spanish conquistadors did not manage to get to Machu Picchu. But where did all the inhabitants disappear then and why was the celestial monastery empty?
According to the widespread theory of scientists, the ancient city is the last refuge of the upper class of the Inca empire, and after its collapse, the entire mountain settlement left these lands. But where? It is doubtful that the people of the destroyed empire could have found a safer place to live, where they could be engaged in both agriculture and cattle breeding, which was revived by the peasants who came there.
According to legend, when the Inca rulers realized that the sunset of their era had come, they turned to the gods for help. They prayed day and night, making sacrifices to heaven. According to one of the versions, the city was enveloped in clouds, which carried away all the inhabitants in an unknown direction.
According to the other, the sky was silent and throughout the year almost all the inhabitants of the city were sacrificed. But the long-awaited sign from above never came. When the supreme ruler realized that they had made a terrible mistake, and they had neither faith nor people, he threw himself into the abyss. And a small part of the survivors scattered across the valley, carrying this legend to our days.
Unfortunately, Machu Picchu is constantly endangered. Back in 2001, The Times reported that Japanese archaeologists at the Disaster Prevention Research Institute at the University of Kyoto concluded that the mountain ranges on which the ancient city is located are being eroded at a rate of 12 cm per year.
The land layers on which the unique monument of Inca architecture is located are shifting and a collapse can occur at any time. There are those who believe that this threat is the curse of an abandoned abode. Nevertheless, every year thousands of tourists risk their lives to see all the beauty and mystery of the last resting place of the Incas.