Peru: Machu Picchu

So, I promised you that on our stop to Peru we would visited three cultural sites, so today we will visit our third: Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu is an extremely famous Incan site located in in the southern part of Peru. This site was discovered in 1911, and it is believed that it was built as an estate for the Incan emperor Pachacuti. This estate was built in the 1400s, before the Spanish conquest of Peru. The Spanish never found this site during their conquest, and so the site was amazingly well preserved allowing us to learn a lot about the Incans, their lifestyles, and their culture. In 1983, Macchu Picchu became a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is considered by many to be one of the new seven wonders of the world.

We are very lucky to be able to visit this site, as there have been problems with tourism at Macchu Picchu. The increased number of tourists that want to visit this site has put extreme stress on the estate. Starting in July of 2011, restrictions were put on how many people could visit the site. Only 2,500 people are allowed to visited Macchu Picchu each day. Although companies have tried to do tours from the sky over Macchu Piccho as well, a no fly zone has been put in place over the ruins, preventing this from occurring.

To get to Macchu Picchu we must start at the city Cusco. From here, we can walk along the Incan Trail. This road was built by the Incans to lead to Macchu Picchu. We must walk through the Andes Mountain Range on this road to get to Macchu Picchu. This journey will likely take us two to four days to complete.

Now that we have arrived at Machu Picchu, we can enjoy the ruins of this great estate. The architecture of the Incans was quite remarkable for the time. Many of the buildings and walls built in Macchu Picchu were earthquake resistant. Although the Incans knew about the wheel and used it in the building of toys for children, it is believed that it was not used at all for engineering. Archaeologists still do not know how the Incas were able to move the huge stones that were used in the building of this estates, although some speculate that hundreds of men simply pushed them to where they needed to go.

There is a sacred district of Macchu Picchu that involved different temples and structures related to the religious beliefs of the Incas. The Incans were polytheistic, believing in many deities. This is the Temple of the Sun which was dedicated to Inti the sun god and greatest deity in Incan religion. The Incans believed in reincarnation. They believed that those who lived by Incan codes got to spend eternity in the warmth of the sun, while those that did not had to remain in the cold of the earth. The Incans performed human sacrifices and in particular child sacrifices. This was especially true during famine or after the death of an important person.

Along with religious sites, Macchu Picchu also includes buildings both for nobility and poorer people. Many buildings were simple storage buildings and simple houses for the lower class. However, there were also much grander houses where nobility and "wise persons" resided on this estate.

The last thing I want to look at in Macchu Picchu is the Intihuatana stone. This is one of the ritual stones in South America. Ritual stones were placed in such a way that they would point directly at the sun during the winter solstice. It is believed that these stones were built as clock or calendar so people could keep track of time based on astronomy. It is also thought that the Incans believed that this stone held the sun in place while it moved along its path in the sky.