Machu Picchu Submitted by jennyreeve on February 12th, While Yale scholar Hiram Bingham was travelling up the slopes with a few companions on an expedition. He met came across some local peasants who informed him of ancient ruins which covered the area. He went to see them for himself and found the lost Inca city of Machu Picchu. Bingham made several trips and conducted many excavations on the site through 1915.
A well-hidden place, and very well protected, Machu Picchu is located far up in the mountains of Peru. Dating back to the mid 15th century, Machu Picchu is an amazing and beautiful archeological site from the Inca Period. Located 2,430 meters above sea level, on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley. The city sits in a between two mountains,Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu.
No one knows why this wonderful archeological site is there. Theories are that Machu Picchu was built as an estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuti and may have been also used as a sacred religious site. Machu Picchu is though to have been built by the Sapa Inca Pachacuti around 1440 and was inhabited until the Spanish conquest of Peru in 1532. It is thought that about 750 people lived in Machu Picchu at any one time, and only a fraction of that number lived in the town during the rainy season when nobility did not visit.
The ruins on Machu Picchu consist of a very large palace and temples to Incan deities around a courtyard. Close to the south end of the city you will find the magnificent Temple of the Sun; the walls are wonderful examples of the precise Inca masonry. The temple is astronomically aligned. On the winter solstice sunlight streams in a small window and lights up a flat granite stone that was more than likely an Inca calendar. In the evening the window gives a view of the constellation Pleiades, which is an Inca symbol of crop fertility.
The best masonry on Machu Picchu is found on the Principal Temple where the three walls have precisely cut stone that is fitted together without mortar. A small building next to the temple that is known as Sacristy may be where priests prepared themselves for ceremonies.
The Temple of Three Windows – this is a three-walled building that can be reached via a stone staircase. The east wall of the temple has been cut from one single piece of rock and pierced with three trapezoidal windows.
Further on is Intihuatana, the “hitching post of the sun”. The exact purpose of Intihuatana is a mystery. The sacred stone column was a common feature in Inca cities; unfortunately, the Spanish destroyed most of them as objects of idol worship. This is one of few that have survived, since the conquistadors never made it to Machu Picchu. Close by is a sacred rock that mirrors the shape of the mountain range behind it.
Moving to the north end of the site stands the Temple of the Condor that is built in the shape of a condor; this is the Inca symbol of heaven.
There are spectacular views from the north side of Machu Picchu, a mountain peak that overlooks the ruins. The climb takes approximately 90 minutes and is extremely dangerous when there has been wet weather.
Machu Picchu is a mystical place that I have longed to visit. Maybe one day I will, but until that day I will have to make do with the many documentaries and books on this fascinating place.
Source: bubblews.com
