Cusco

Machu Picchu is the most well-known, well-preserved and spectacularly located Inca archaeological site in Peru and therefore is the most visited. It was built around 1450, as the Incas spread their empire outwards from the capital Cusco, led by their visionary leader Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui.

Coricancha

Another great mystery of Machu Picchu is how it was built without the wheel. Although the Incas are believed to have known about the wheel’s existence, they never used it. Many large granite rocks used in the citadel’s construction had to be moved somehow up the steep Andean mountains to be set in place.

Hiram Bingham

The Citadel of Machu Picchu is considered the main tourist attraction in Peru and one of the most visited worldwide. Machu Picchu is a Quechua word that comes from “Machu” that means old or ancient, and “Picchu” meaning mountain.

Construction Process Some were chiseled from the granite bedrock of the mountain ridge. Built without the use of wheels, hundreds of men pushed the heavy rocks up the steep mountain side. Structures at Machu Picchu were built with a technique called “ldquo ashlar.” Stones are cut to fit together without mortar.

Abandonment of Machu Picchu Machu Picchu did not survive the collapse of the Inca. In 1572, with the fall of the last Incan capital, their line of rulers came to end. Machu Picchu, a royal estate once visited by great emperors, fell into ruin. Today, the site is on the United Nations’ list of World Heritage sites.

Inca buildings were made out of fieldstones or semi-worked stone blocks and dirt set in mortar; adobe walls were also quite common, usually laid over stone foundations. Even so, there are some examples of curved walls on Inca buildings, mostly in regions outside the central area of Peru.

The dwellings at Machu Picchu were probably built and occupied from the mid-15th to the early or mid-16th century. Machu Picchu’s construction style and other evidence suggest that it was a palace complex of the ruler Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui (reigned c. 1438–71).

Most of the evidence recovered at Machu Picchu relates to the creation of objects from tin bronze, an alloy of copper associated with the Inca State, but objects were fashioned of precious metal as well. The excavations of 1912 found a wide variety of metal tools and jewelry.

The origin of Machu Picchu is attributed with some certainty to Pachacutec. Likely built as a refuge for elite members of Inca aristocracy, the fortress was constructed on the eastern slopes of the Vilcanota mountain range, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) from Cusco, the capital of the empire.

• Machu Picchu Was the Last Inca City.
• Machu Picchu Was a Holy Nunnery.
• Machu Picchu Was a Royal Retreat.
• Machu Picchu Was a Re-creation of the Inca Creation Myth.
• Machu Picchu Was Built to Honor a Sacred Landscape.
• All of the Above?

Why was Machu Picchu built?

• a.
• The Urubamba River surrounds the ridge and most of the sacred snow capped mountains could be seen from the citadel.
• In the Andes animals and plants grow at different time periods at different elevations so another advantage for the location of Machu Picchu was its proximity to the rainforest.

• Theory # 1: Machu Picchu was a Temple of the Sun / a hot spot for Holy Virgins.
• Theory # 2: Machu Picchu was a sort of Royal Holiday Resort.
• Theory # 3: Aliens Built Machu Picchu.
• Theory # 4: Machu Picchu was an Incan Mecca.
• Theory #5: Machu Picchu was built to honor the landscape.

Likely abandoned in the sixteenth century and invaded by the Andean forest throughout the proceeding years, Machu Picchu remained hidden to the world for centuries. The Spanish conquistadors never found it and the Incas who knew the location never revealed its existence and was forgotten.

Traveling on foot and by mule, Bingham and his team made their way from Cuzco into the Urubamba Valley, where a local farmer told them of some ruins located at the top of a nearby mountain. The farmer called the mountain Machu Picchu, which translates to “old peak” in the native Quechua language.

200 buildings

As in other Inca cities, Machu Picchu followed the religious architectural pattern of truncated pyramid construction. Buildings contained rectangular rooms with irregular sized walls, their roof was made of wooden logs and covered with straw. Today, due to the passage of time, the buildings do not have a roof any more.

They cut the stones using bronze tools and harder stones from nearby quarries. Judging from tool marks left on the stones it is most probable that the Incas pounded the stones into shape and not really cut them. If you look closely, you will find a quarry right inside Machu Picchu.

1.60 m.