Machu Picchu

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Machu Picchu
Machu Pikchu
Shown within Peru
Location Cusco Region, Peru
Coordinates
13!"#$%&S
'(3(#$$&W Coordinates)
13!"#$%&S '(3(#$$&W
Height (,$3! metres *',"'! ft+
History
Founded c, 1$-!
Abandoned 1-'(
Cultures .nca ci/ili0ation
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Official name: Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu
Tye Mi1ed
Criteria i, iii, /ii, i1
!esignated 1"%3 *'th session+
"e#erence No$ ('$
State Party Peru
"egion 2atin 3merica and the Cari44ean
Machu Picchu *in hispanici0ed spelling, Spanish pronunciation) 5 mat u pikt u6 + or Machu
Pi%chu *7uechua machu old, old person, pikchu peak8 mountain or prominence with a
4road 4ase which ends in sharp peaks,
516
9old peak9, pronunciation 5 m t u pi1t u6 + is a
1-th:century .nca site located (,$3! metres *',"'! ft+ a4o/e sea le/el,
5(6536
.t is located in the
Cusco Region, ;ru4am4a Pro/ince, Machupicchu <istrict in Peru,
5$6
.t is situated on a
mountain ridge a4o/e the Sacred =alley which is %! kilometres *-! mi+ northwest of Cusco
and through which the ;ru4am4a Ri/er flows, Most archaeologists 4elie/e that Machu
Picchu was 4uilt as an estate for the .nca emperor Pachacuti *1$3%>1$'(+, ?ften mistakenly
referred to as the 92ost City of the .ncas9, it is perhaps the most familiar icon of .nca
ci/ili0ation,
@he .ncas 4uilt the estate around 1$-!, 4ut a4andoned it a century later at the time of the
Spanish ConAuest, 3lthough known locally, it was unknown to the outside world 4efore
4eing 4rought to international attention in 1"11 4y the 3merican historian Biram Cingham,
Since then, Machu Picchu has 4ecome an important tourist attraction, Most of the outlying
4uildings ha/e 4een reconstructed in order to gi/e tourists a 4etter idea of what the
structures originally looked like,
5-6
Cy 1"'D, thirty percent of Machu Picchu had 4een
restored,
5-6
@he restoration work continues to this day,
5D6
Since the site was not known to the Spanish during their conAuest, it is highly significant as
a relati/ely intact cultural site, Machu Picchu was declared a Peru/ian Bistorical Sanctuary
in 1"%1 and a ;EFSC? World Beritage Site in 1"%3,
536
.n (!!', Machu Picchu was /oted
one of the Eew Se/en Wonders of the World in a worldwide .nternet poll,
Machu Picchu was 4uilt in the classical .nca style, with polished dry:stone walls, .ts three
primary structures are the Inti Watana, the Temple of the Sun, and the Room of the Three
Windows, @hese are located in what is known 4y archaeologists as the Sacred District of
Machu Picchu,
5citation needed6
Machu Picchu is /ulnera4le to threats, While natural phenomena like earthAuakes and
weather systems can play ha/oc with access, the site also suffers from the pressures of too
many tourists, .n addition, preser/ation of the areaGs cultural and archaeological heritage is
an ongoing concern, Most nota4ly, the remo/al of cultural artifacts 4y the Cingham
e1peditions in the early (!th century ga/e rise to a long:term dispute 4etween the
go/ernment of Peru and the custodian of the artifacts, Hale ;ni/ersity,
5'65%6
Contents
1 Bistory
o 1,1 @heories on the use of Machu Picchu
1,1,1 Machu Picchu was the last .ncan city
1,1,( Machu Picchu was for the =irgins of the Sun
1,1,3 Machu Picchu was a royal retreat
1,1,$ Machu Picchu was 4uilt to honor a sacred landscape
o 1,( Farly encounters
o 1,3 <emystifying the disco/ery of Machu Picchu
o 1,$ Buman sacrifice, aliens and mysticism
( Ieography
3 Site
o 3,1 2ayout
o 3,( .nti Watana stone
o 3,3 .nti MachGay and the Royal Feast of the Sun
o 3,$ Construction
o 3,- Roads and transportation
o 3,D 3< laser scanning of site
$ @hreats
o $,1 Concerns o/er tourism
o $,( January (!1! e/acuation
$,(,1 Fntrance restrictions
o $,3 Cultural artifacts) <ispute 4etween Peru and Hale ;ni/ersity
- .n media
D See also
' References
o ',1 Ci4liography
% Further reading
" F1ternal links
o ",1 .mages
1! Related information
History
Biram Cingham ... at his tent door near Machu Picchu in 1"1(
Machu Picchu was 4uilt around 1$-!, at the height of the .nca Fmpire,
5"6
@he construction
of Machu Picchu appears to date from the period of the two great .ncas, Pachacutec .nca
HupanAui *1$3%>'1+ and @upac .nca HupanAui *1$'(>"3+,
51!6
.t was a4andoned Kust o/er
1!! years later, in 1-'(, as a 4elated result of the Spanish ConAuest,
5"65116
.t is possi4le that
most of its inha4itants died from smallpo1 introduced 4y tra/elers 4efore the Spanish
conAuistadors arri/ed in the area,
51(6
@he latter had notes of a place called Piccho, although
there is no record of the Spanish ha/ing /isited the remote city, @he types of sacred rocks
defaced 4y the conAuistadors in other locations are untouched at Machu Picchu,
5116
Biram Cingham theori0ed that the comple1 was the traditional 4irthplace of the .ncan
9=irgins of the Suns9,
5136
More recent research 4y scholars such as John Bowland Rowe and
Richard Curger, has con/inced most archaeologists that Machu Picchu was an estate of the
.nca emperor Pachacuti,
5116
.n addition, Johan Reinhard presented e/idence that the site was
selected 4ecause of its position relati/e to sacred landscape features such as its mountains
that are purported to 4e in alignment with key astronomical e/ents important to the .ncas,
5citation needed6
Johan Reinhard 4elie/es Machu Picchu to 4e a sacred religious site, @his theory stands
mainly 4ecause of where Machu Picchu is located, Reinhard calls it 9sacred geography9
4ecause the site is 4uilt on and around mountains that hold high religious importance in the
.nca culture and in the pre/ious culture that occupied the land, 3t the highest point of the
mountain which Machu Picchu was named after, there are 9artificial platforms 5and6 these
had a religious function, as is clear from the .nca ritual offerings found 4uried under them9
*Reinhard (!!'+, @hese platforms also are found in other .ncan religious sites,
@he siteLs other stone structures ha/e finely worked stones with niches and, from what the
9Spaniards wrote a4out .nca sites, we know that these 5types of6 4uilding5s6 were of ritual
significance9 *Reinhard (!!'+, @his would 4e the most con/incing e/idence that Reinhard
points out 4ecause this type of stylistic stonework is only found at the religious sites so it
would 4e natural that they would e1ist at this religious site,
51$6
3nother theory maintains that Machu Picchu was an .nca llata, a settlement 4uilt to
control the economy of conAuered regions, Het another asserts that it may ha/e 4een 4uilt
as a prison for a select few who had committed heinous crimes against .nca society,
5citation
needed6
3n alternati/e theory is that it is an agricultural testing station, <ifferent types of crops
could 4e tested in the many different micro:climates afforded 4y the location and the
terraces8 these were not large enough to grow food on a large scale, 4ut may ha/e 4een used
to determine what could grow where,
5citation needed6
=iew of the city of Machu Picchu in 1"1( showing the original ruins after maKor clearing
and 4efore modern reconstruction work 4egan,
5-65D6
3lthough the citadel is located only a4out %! kilometers *-! mi+ from Cusco, the .nca
capital, the Spanish ne/er found it and conseAuently did not plunder or destroy it, as they
did many other sites,
5116
?/er the centuries, the surrounding Kungle grew o/er the site, and
few knew of its e1istence,
Biram Cingham was an 3merican historian employed as a lecturer at Hale ;ni/ersity, he
was not a trained archaeologist, .n 1"!" on his way 4ack from attending the Pan:3merican
Scientific Congress in Santiago he tra/eled through Peru and was in/ited to e1plore the
.nca ruins at ChoAAueAuirau in the 3purimac =alley, which ga/e him an interest in .nca
ruins, and an introduction to Peru/ian President 2eguia, Be organi0ed the 1"11 Hale
Peru/ian F1pedition with one of its o4Kecti/es to search for the lost city of =itcos, the last
capital of the .ncas, Be researched sources and consulted Carlos Romero, a historian in
2ima who showed Cingham helpful references and Father CalanchaLs Chronicle,
3rmed with this information the e1pedition went down the ;ru4am4a Ri/er on the new
road that was completed in 1%"-, Fn route he asked local people to show them .nca ruins,
Cy the time they camped at Mandor Pampa with Buayna Picchu (!!! feet a4o/e them on
the opposite 4ank they had already e1amined se/eral ruins, including fi/e sites that Berman
@ucker e1plored, Cut none fitted the descriptions they had of =itcos,
3t Mandor Pampa Cingham asked a local farmer and innkeeper, Melchor 3rteaga, if he
knew of any ruins in the area and he said he knew of some e1cellent ruins on the top of
Buayna Picchu,
51-6
@he ne1t day, ($th July 1"11, 3rteaga led Cingham and Sergeant
Carrasco across the ri/er on a primiti/e log 4ridge and up the mountain, 3t the top of the
mountain they came across a small hut occupied 4y a couple of 7uechua, Richarte and
3l/are0, who were farming some of the original Machu Picchu agricultural terraces that
they had cleared four years earlier, 3fter a rest and refreshments Cingham was led along the
ridge to the main ruins 4y Pa4lito, the 11:year:old son of 3l/are0,
51D6
@he ruins were mostly co/ered with /egetation e1cept for the cleared agricultural terraces
and clearings used 4y the farmers as /egeta4le gardens, Cecause of the /egetation Cingham
was not a4le to get a full e1tent of the site, Be took some preliminary notes and
measurements, took some pictures and o4ser/ed the fine Auality of .nca stonework of
se/eral principal 4uildings, Cingham was unclear of the original purpose of the ruins, 4ut
decided that there was no indication that it matched the description of the city of =itcos,
@herefore the e1pedition continued down the ;ru4am4a and up the =ilca4am4a Ri/ers
e1amining all the ruins they could find, F/entually finding and correctly identifying the site
of the old .nca capital, =itcos, and the near4y temple of ChuAuipalta, Be then went across a
pass and into the Pampaconas =alley where he found more ruins hea/ily 4uried in the
Kungle undergrowth at Fspiritu Pampa, Cecause the site was so hea/ily o/ergrown he only
noted a few of the 4uildings and didnLt appreciate the large e1tent of the site, .n 1"D$ Iene
Sa/oy
51'6
did further e1ploration of the ruins at Fspiritu Pampa and re/ealed the full e1tent
of the site and identified it as =ilca4am4a =ieKo where the .ncas fled to after the Spanish
dro/e them from =itcos,
?n the return of the e1pedition up the ;ru4am4a Ri/er, Cingham sent two of the team to do
some clearing and mapping of the site he referred to as Machu Picchu, 3s Cingham failed
to identify the ruins at Fspiritu Pampa as =ilca4am4a =ieKo, he erroneously theori0ed that
Machu Picchu was =ilca4am4a =ieKo,
Cingham returned to Machu Picchu in 1"1( under the sponsorship of Hale ;ni/ersity and
Eational Ieographic Society and with full support of Peru/ian President 2eguia, @he
e1pedition undertook a massi/e four:month clearing of the site with local la4or, which was
e1pedited with the auspices of the Prefect of Cu0co, F1ca/ation started in 1"1( with further
e1ca/ation of the site undertaken in 1"1$ and 1"1-,
CinghamLs focus on Machu Picchu was 4ecause of the fine .nca stonework and the well
preser/ed nature of the ruins, that had not 4een distur4ed since it was a4andoned, 3lthough
Cingham put forward /arious hypotheses to e1plain the e1istence of Machu Picchu, none of
them ha/e stood the test of further e1amination and study, CinghamLs lasting contri4ution is
in pu4lici0ing Machu Picchu to the world and undertaking a rigorous and thorough study of
the site, Cingham wrote a num4er of 4ooks and articles a4out the disco/ery of Machu
Picchu, the most popular of which today is 92ost City of the .ncas9, a retrospecti/e account
of his 1"11 Hale e1pedition and his disco/ery of Machu Picchu, written in 1"$% near the
end of his life,
<uring CinghamGs archaeological studies he collected /arious artifacts which he took 4ack
to Hale, ?ne of the more prominent artifacts he reco/ered was a set of ceremonial .ncan
kni/es made from 4ismuth 4ron0e, @hese kni/es were molded in the 1-th century and are
the earliest known artifacts containing 4ismuth 4ron0e,
51%6
3s CinghamGs e1ca/ations took place on Machu Picchu, local intellectuals 4egan to oppose
the operation of Cingham and his team of e1plorers,
51"6
@hough local institutions were
initially enthused at the idea of the operation supplementing Peru/ian knowledge a4out
their ancestry, the team 4egan to encounter accusations of legal and cultural malpractice,
51"6

2ocal landowners 4egan to demand payments of rent from the e1ca/ation team, and rumors
arose a4out Cingham and his team stealing artifacts and smuggling them out of Peru
through the 4ordering country of Coli/ia,
51"6
@hese accusations worsened when the local
press caught wind of the rumors and helped to discredit the legitimacy of the e1ca/ation,
4randing the practice as harmful to the site and claiming that local archaeologists were
4eing depri/ed of their rightful knowledge a4out their own history 4ecause of the intrusi/e
e1ca/ations of the 3merican archaeologists,
51"6
Cy the time Cingham and his team left
Machu Picchu locals 4egan forming coalitions in order to defend their deser/ed ownership
of Machu Picchu and its cultural remains, while Cingham claimed the artifacts ought to 4e
studied 4y e1perts in 3merican institutions, an argument that still e1ists today,
51"6
@he site recei/ed significant pu4licity after the Eational Ieographic Society de/oted their
entire 3pril 1"13 issue to Machu Picchu,
.n 1"%1 Peru declared an area of 3(-,"( sAuare kilometres *1(-,%$ sA mi+ surrounding
Machu Picchu as a 9Bistorical Sanctuary9, .n addition to the ruins, the sanctuary includes a
large portion of the adKoining region, rich with the flora and fauna of the Peru/ian Hungas
and Central 3ndean wet puna ecoregions,
5(!6
.n 1"%3 ;EFSC? designated Machu Picchu a World Beritage Site, descri4ing it as 9an
a4solute masterpiece of architecture and a uniAue testimony to the .nca ci/ili0ation9,
5(6
@he World Monuments Fund placed Machu Picchu on its (!!% Watch 2ist of the 1!! Most
Fndangered Sites in the world 4ecause of en/ironmental degradation, @his has resulted
from the impact of tourism, uncontrolled de/elopment in the near4y town of 3guas
Calientes, which included a poorly sited tram to ease /isitor access, and the construction of
a 4ridge across the =ilcanota Ri/er, which is likely to 4ring e/en more tourists to the site,
in defiance of a court order and go/ernment protests against it,
Theories on the use o# Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu &as the last 'ncan city
Cingham theori0ed that site was 4oth the last city of the .nca, and also the legendary 9lost
city9 of =ilca4am4a la =ieKa, which the last of the independent .nca rulers waged a lengthy
4attle against Spanish conAuistadors in the 1Dth century, Be was wrong on this account, as
archaeologists later disco/ered the actual last city was FspMritu Pampa, a Kungle site a4out
%! miles west of the .nca capital city of Cusco, Cingham did /isit FspMritu Pampa in 1"11,
Bowe/er, he decided the site was not grand enough to 4e the legendary city, F1ca/ations in
the 1"D!s 4y Iene Sa/oy and latter e1tensi/e mapping 4y =incent 2ee, an architect and
3ndean e1plorer, e1posed the site to 4e far 4igger than Cingham thought, 9 ,,, there were
$!! to -!! 4uildings at the site ,,, 4ut Cingham had only seen a4out (!,9 2ee said, Which is
more representati/e for the indigenous name of the site 4eing =ilca4am4a Irande,
Machu Picchu &as #or the (irgins o# the Sun
Cingham suggested that Machu Picchu might ha/e 4een a temple de/oted to the =irgins of
the Sun, @hese women dedicated their li/es to the .nca Sun god, @his theory was largely
4ased on do0ens of skeletons CinghamGs team found 4uried at the site, ;S osteologist
Ieorge Faton said in the early twentieth century that the remains were nearly all females,
@his theory was o/erthrown in (!!!, when =erano, then at Hale, e1amined the remains and
found that the skeletons were a4out half males and half females, =eranoGs analysis was
4ased on skeletal differences 4etween the genders that were not known during FatonGs time,
=erano 4elie/es Faton may ha/e 4een misled 4y the relati/ely diminuti/e si0e of the
3ndean people, who are typically shorter and less ro4ust than the Furopean and 3frican
skeletons with which Faton would ha/e 4een more familiar,9Be pro4a4ly saw the small
4ones and assumed they must 4e female,9 he said, 3rchaeologists now generally agree that
the skeletons at Machu Picchu were not those of .nca priestesses, 4ut rather helpers who
were 4rought in from all o/er the .nca Fmpire to ser/e at the site,9.f you thought of Machu
Picchu as a royal hotel or a time:share condo for the .nca emperor and his guests, then these
were the staff who cooked the food, grew the crops, and cleaned the place,9 =erano said,
Machu Picchu &as a royal retreat
Most historians agree with =eranoGs interpretation of the Machu Picchu skeletons as a group
of indi/iduals who worked on a royal retreat under the fifteenth century .nca Fmperor
Pachacuti, 3ccording to this idea, Machu Picchu was a place for Pachacuti and his royal
court, or panaca, to rela1, hunt, and entertain guests, @he royal estate theory was first
proposed in the 1"%!s, and is largely 4ased on a si1teenth:century Spanish document that
referred to a royal estate called Picchu, which was 4uilt in the same general area as Machu
Picchu,
Machu Picchu &as built to honor a sacred landscae
3nother theory suggested 4y archaeologist and anthropologist Johan Reinhard, Machu
Picchu occupied a special place in the 9sacred landscape9 of the .nca, For e1ample, Machu
Picchu is 4uilt atop a mountain that is almost completely encircled 4y the ;ru4am4a Ri/er,
which the .nca named the =ilcamayo, or Sacred Ri/er, Reinhard also pointed out that the
rising and setting of the sun, which is an .ncan Iod, when seen from certain locations
within Machu Picchu aligns neatly with religiously significant mountains during solstices
and eAuino1es,
Early encounters
3lthough Cingham was the first person to 4ring word of the ruins to the outside world,
pre/ious outsiders were said to ha/e seen them, Simone Wais4ard, a long:time researcher
of Cusco, claims that FnriAue Palma, Ia4ino SNnche0, and 3gustMn 2i0Nrraga left their
names engra/ed on one of the rocks at Machu Picchu on 1$ July 1"!1, .n 1"!$, an engineer
named Franklin supposedly spotted the ruins from a distant mountain, Be told @homas
Payne, an Fnglish Christian missionary li/ing in the region, a4out the site, PayneGs family
mem4ers claim, @hey also report that in 1"!D, Payne and fellow missionary Stuart F,
McEairn *1%D'>1"-D+ clim4ed up to the ruins,
@he site may ha/e 4een disco/ered and plundered in 1%D' 4y a Ierman 4usinessman,
3ugusto Cerns,
5(16
@here is some e/idence that a Ierman engineer, J, M, /on Bassel,
arri/ed earlier, Maps found 4y historians show references to Machu Picchu as early as
1%'$,
5((6
!e)ysti#ying the disco*ery o# Machu Picchu
@he disco/ery of Machu Picchu and much of its history has 4een glorified 4y Biram
Cingham, @his issue has come to light after BiramGs son, 3lfred, disco/ered a collection of
letters that his father had sent his mother in 1"11, <ue to early pu4lications, many people
were led to 4elie/e that Biram had long sought after the lost city of the .ncas and e/entually
found it after trekking through a ha0ardous tropical Kungle, 3lfred Cingham re/eals that this
was not the case, .n actuality, Machu Picchu was not a chief o4Kecti/e of BiramGs 1"11
e1pedition, Eor was the search for the city long and dangerous, Biram had 4een led to the
location Kust forty:eight hours after 4eginning his Kourney, @he road to Machu Picchu was
not hidden in a treacherous wilderness, rather it was located ne1t to a hea/ily populated
region of farmers, Furthermore, Biram freAuently claimed that the paths to Machu Picchu
were the most inaccessi4le in all of the 3ndes, Bowe/er, the letters indicate that Biram
used a modern road system and tra/elled to the region with ease, .t is said that the original
Kourney only took Biram one hour and a halfGs time, @oday, tourists can make the trip within
fifteen minutes,
5(36
3lfred further demystifies his fatherGs e1pedition after disco/ering a series of unpu4lished
photographs from the original Kourney, Biram had claimed that all the ruins of Machu
Picchu were co/ered in a dense /egetation, Contrarily, the photographs depict the ruins in a
clear open space, @he letters and photographs suggest that Machu Picchu was not isolated
in wilderness, 4ut rather connected and populated 4y se/eral indigenous families, 3lfred
also suggests that his father did not originally /alue his findings at Machu Picchu as he only
spent one afternoon at the location 4efore returning to his camp, Be only decided to further
in/estigate the ruins after some prominent plantation owners told him they knew little of
the locationGs e1istence,
5($6
Hu)an sacri#ice+ aliens and )ysticis)
@here is little information on human sacrifices taking place at Machu Picchu, @his is can 4e
attri4uted to the fact that many sacrifices were ne/er gi/en a proper 4urial and their skeletal
remains ha/e succum4ed to the elements,
5(-6)11-
Bowe/er, there is e/idence that indicates the
use of retainer sacrifices, .n these uniAue cases, human sacrifices were made to accompany
a deceased no4le in the afterlife,
5(-6)1!',11"
3lthough human sacrifices occurred, it was much
more common to offer animal, liAuid and dirt sacrifices to the gods, @hese offerings were
made at the 3ltar of the Condor and are still made today 4y mem4ers of the Eew 3ge
3ndean religion,
5(D6)(D3
.t is a 4elief among some Eew 3ge 3ndean cosmologists that aliens once inha4ited the
Cusco region of Peru and are responsi4le for 4uilding Machu PicchuGs grand architecture,
@hese /iews ha/e 4een widely refuted 4y Peru/ians as they feel their ancestors were
capa4le of such technological and architectural feats,
5(D6)('3>$