The Machu Picchu 
| The Machu Picchu |
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The Machu Picchu is an old inca city perched on the heights of the Andes Cordillera. It is become the most important inca archeological site of the Peru. The sacred town of Machu Picchu ("old mountain" in Quecha language) is a pre-Columbian archeological site situated at 130 km in the North-West of Cusco in Peru. Built on the crest of the mountain of the same name, this town is situated at more than 2700 meters of altitude. The Machu Picchu is a particular city of the Inca empire. It is a sacred town, probably reserved for the women of the family of the Inca affecting of malformations, a town of attentions dedicated to the divinities and then built on a series of mystic symbols. It is a town fortified by walls of adjusted stones, by the peaks and the rivers which surround it and by a bushy forest. |
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The town draws a condor in flight, the part of habitation is in form of alligator and the temples area, a puma in right jump. The town is overhung by a peak which contains a cut and threatening puma and by eroded peak which the three emissaries draw a condor extending its wings on the town. The localization of this city was considered as a military secret, but it is especially the deep ravines and the abrupt cliffs which made its best defence. It would seem in addition that spiritual considerations have completed the strategic interest of this place choice. |
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One thinks today that the town has been built under the reign of the emperor Pachacuti in 1440. The town has been inhabited until the Spanish invasion in 1532. According to the archeological searches effected on the site, the Machu Picchu wasn't a traditional town, but rather a stronghold used as secondary palace by the emperor and his court. One estimate that the place didn't count more than 750 people at the same time. Some current theories assert that this place was an Inca llacta, in other words a stronghold dedicated to the control of the economy of the conquered areas. According to the archeoligists, the Macchu Picchu is divided in three big areas : the sacred area, the popular area and the area of the persons of noble bith and the clergymen. The sacred area is dedicated to Inti, the sun god, principal divinity of the inca Pantheon. It's here that are the most important archeological treasures : the solar clock (Intihuatana) and the temple of the sun. |
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The town was rediscovered the 24th July 1911 by Hiram Bingham, a historian from Yale who effected searches on the incas roads of the region. Hiram Bingham participated in the first excavations on the place, and thanks to his book Lost City of the Incas, he rendered this place famous.
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All the constructions of the Machu Picchu are of classical inca style. The walls are composed of stones perfectly adjusted. The Incas didn't used cement. The granite of the constructions came from far quarries, what required a very developped ingeniery to make assemble stone blocks being able to weigh several tonnes still the top of the mountain. |
To reach the Machu Picchu, it must take a jolting little train which winds down of the abrupt peaks, then a bus out of age which painfully drives up from the valley to the entrance of the town. Thousands of tourists crowd there every year, (400 000 in 2003), which don't goes without ask grave questions as to the everlastingness of its archeological interest. According to the Peruvian government it isn't necessary to be alarmed and, in all matters, the difficulty of access will be always a physical limitation to the increase of the volume of tourists. Moreover, since 1981, the Machu Picchu is one of a natural reserve which the aim is to protect not only the archeological place, but also the local fauna and flora. One especially notes there an abounding presence of wild orchids. And in 1983, the UNESCO registered the place on the list of the world-wide patrimony.
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