In the Quechua language, machu means 'old or elderly', while pikchu means 'peak, mountain or prominence with a wide base ending in sharp points'; Therefore, the name of the site means 'old mountain'.[28]​.

Site

It is located at 13°9'47" south latitude and 72°32'44" west longitude. It is part of the district of the same name, in the province of Urubamba, in the department of Cusco, in Peru. The closest major city is Cusco, current regional capital and former capital of the Incas, 132 kilometers from there.

The Machu Picchu "Machu Picchu (mountain)" and Huayna Picchu mountains are part of a large orographic formation known as the Vilcabamba batholith, in the Central Cordillera of the Peruvian Andes. They are located on the left bank of the so-called Urubamba Canyon, known in ancient times as Quebrada de Picchu.[29] At the foot of the hills, surrounding them, the Vilcanota-Urubamba river runs. The Inca archaeological site is located halfway between the tops of both mountains, 450 meters above the valley level and 2,438 meters above sea level. The built surface is about 530 meters by 200 meters wide, it has 172 buildings in its urban area. It is located in the Peruvian Yungas ecoregion.

The city is located within an intangible territory of the National System of Natural Areas Protected by the State (SINANPE),[30] called the Historical Sanctuary of Machu Picchu, which extends over an area of ​​32,592 hectares (80,535 acres or 325.92 km²) of the Vilcanota-Urubamba river basin (the Willka mayu or 'sacred river' of the Incas). The Historical Sanctuary protects a series of biological species in danger of extinction and several Inca establishments,[31]​ among which Machu Picchu is considered the main one.

Forms of access

The archaeological zone is accessible, either from the post-Inca roads that reach it, or by using the Hiram Bingham highway (which ascends the slope of Machu Picchu hill from the old Puente Ruinas train station, at the bottom of the canyon "Canyon (geomorphology)"). Neither way exempts the visitor from the entrance fee to the complex.[32] The aforementioned highway, however, is not integrated into the national highway network of Peru. It is born in the town of Aguas Calientes "Aguas Calientes (Machupicchu)"), which in turn can only be accessed by rail (about three hours from Cusco)[33]​ or helicopter (30 minutes from Cusco). The absence of a direct road to the Machu Picchu sanctuary is intentional and allows controlling the flow of visitors to the area, which, given its nature as a national reserve, is sensitive to crowds. This, however, has not prevented the disorderly growth (criticized by cultural authorities) of Aguas Calientes, which lives by and for tourism, since there are hotels and restaurants of different categories in this place.[34]​.

• - On these prices there is a 50% discount for people over 60 years of age, disabled people and students.

To get to Machu Picchu along the main Inca trail you must take a three-day walk. To do this, it is necessary to take a train or bus to km 82 of the Cusco-Aguas Calientes railway line, which coincides with the limit of the Machu Picchu national park, from where the walking tour begins.[36] Some visitors take a local bus from Cusco to Ollantaytambo (via Urubamba) and from there take transportation to the aforementioned km 82. Once there, they travel along the train tracks until they cover the 32 km to Aguas Calientes. Currently, buses go to the hydroelectric plant, nine kilometers from Aguas Calientes, which is a three-hour walk, which is the same route the train takes.

Climate

The temperature is warm with humid air during the day, and cool at night, ranging between 12 and 24 degrees Celsius. The area is very rainy, especially between November and March. The rains, which are copious, alternate quickly with intense sunshine.[37]​.

Geography

The entire archaeological site has been built on the Vilcabamba batholith, composed of intrusive rocks dating back about 250 million years, Permo-Triassic intrusives[38]​with a main base of white to grayish granite, cut by some veins of tonalites and talceschists. The granite massif is cut by a series of faults and joints that play an important role in the current formation of the relief and its evolution. On the Geological Map of the Machu Picchu Quadrangle (27-q) of the Geological Mining and Metallurgical Institute of Peru, two large regional strike-slip faults are observed that cut the area, called the Huayna Picchu and Machu Picchu Faults, with a NE-SW orientation. These faults have had no recent activity.[39]​.

Contenido

La quebrada de Picchu, a medio camino entre los Andes y la floresta amazónica, fue una región colonizada por poblaciones andinas, no selváticas, provenientes de las regiones de Vilcabamba y del Valle Sagrado, en Cusco, en busca de una expansión de sus fronteras agrarias. Las evidencias arqueológicas indican que la agricultura se practicaba en la región desde al menos el 760 a. C.[40]​ Una explosión demográfica se da a partir del período Horizonte Medio, desde el año 900 de esta era, por grupos no documentados históricamente, pero que es posible estuvieron vinculados a la etnia tampu del Urubamba. Se cree que estos pueblos podrían haber formado parte de la federación Ayarmaca, rivales de los primeros incas del Cusco.[41]​ En ese período se expande por una considerable área agrícola «construida» (andenes). No obstante, el emplazamiento específico (la cresta rocosa que une las montañas Machu Picchu y Huayna Picchu) no presenta huellas de haber tenido edificaciones antes del siglo .[42]​.

Inca era (1475-1534)

Around 1430, during his campaign towards Vilcabamba, the Picchu ravine was conquered by Pachacutec,[43]​ the first Inca of Tahuantinsuyo (1438-1470). The site of Machu Picchu must have impressed the monarch due to its peculiar characteristics within the sacred geography of Cusco,[44]​ and for this reason he would have ordered the construction there, around 1450, of an urban complex with luxurious civil and religious buildings.[45]​.

It is believed that Machu Picchu had a mobile population like most of the Inca llactas, which ranged between 300 and 1000 inhabitants[46]​ belonging to an elite (possible members of the panaca of Pachacútec)[47]​ and acllas. It has been shown that the agricultural force was made up of mitimaes or mitmas slaves (Quechua: mitmaqkuna) from different corners of the empire, it is estimated that the largest number of these were the Chancas, who also built the fortress, being enslaved and stripped of their lands (present-day Apurímac and Ayacucho) after being defeated by Pachacutec.[48]​.

Machu Picchu was by no means an isolated complex, so the myth of the "lost city" and the "secret refuge" of the Inca rulers lacks basis. The valleys that converged in the ravine formed a region with a dense population that dramatically increased its agricultural productivity after the Inca occupation in 1440. They would have been insufficient to supply the pre-Hispanic population.[51]​ Intra-regional communication was possible thanks to the Inca road networks: eight roads reached Machu Picchu.[52]​ The small city of Picchu came to be differentiated from neighboring towns by the singular quality of its main buildings.

Upon the death of Pachacútec, and in accordance with royal Inca customs, this and the rest of his personal properties would have passed to the administration of his panaca, which was to allocate the income produced to the cult of the mummy of the deceased Inca.[53] It is presumed that this situation would have been maintained during the governments of Túpac Yupanqui (1470-1493) and Huayna Cápac (1493-1529).

Machu Picchu must have partly lost its importance as it had to compete in prestige with the personal properties of the successor sovereigns. In fact, the opening of a safer and wider road between Ollantaytambo and Vilcabamba (that of the Amaybamba valley) made the Picchu ravine route less used.[54]​.

Transitional period (1534-1572)

The Inca civil war (1531-1532) and the Spanish invasion of Cusco in 1534 must have greatly affected life in Machu Picchu. The peasant mass of the region was made up of mitmaes, settlers from different nations conquered by the Incas who were forcibly taken there. They took advantage of the fall of the Cusco economic system to return to their lands of origin.[55]​ The Inca resistance against the Spanish led by Manco Inca in 1536 summoned the nobles of the nearby regions to join his court in the exile of Vilcabamba,[56]​ and it is very likely that the main nobles of Picchu had then abandoned the city. Documents from the time indicate that the region was full of "despopulated" at that time.[57]​ Picchu would have continued to be inhabited, as it was considered a tributary population of the Spanish encomienda of Ollantaytambo.[58]​ This does not mean that the Spanish visited Machu Picchu frequently; In fact, we know that the tribute from Picchu was delivered to the Spanish once a year in the town of Ollantaytambo, and not "collected" locally.[59]​ In any case, it is clear that the Spanish knew about the place, although there is no indication that it was frequently visited by the Spanish each year. Colonial documents mention the name of the person who was curaca (perhaps the last) of Machu Picchu in 1568: Juan Mácora.[60]​ That he was called "Juan" indicates that he had been, at least nominally, baptized, and, therefore, subject to Spanish influence.

Another document[61]​ indicates that the Inca Titu Cusi Yupanqui, who then reigned in Vilcabamba, asked that Augustinian friars come to evangelize "Piocho" around 1570. There is no known place name in the area that sounds similar to Piocho other than Piccho or Picchu, which makes Lumbreras suppose that the famous "extirpaters of idolatries")" could have arrived to the site and having had to do with the destruction and burning of the tower of the Temple of the Sun.[62]​.

The Spanish soldier Baltasar de Ocampo") wrote at the end of the century about a town "on top of a mountain" with "very sumptuous" buildings and that housed a large acllahuasi (house of the chosen ones) in the last years of the Inca resistance. The brief description he makes of its environments refers us to Picchu. The most interesting thing is that Ocampo says it is called Pitcos. The only place with a similar name is Vitcos, a site Inca in Vilcabamba completely different from that described by Ocampo. The other natural candidate is Picchu.[63] It is not known to this day if it is the same place. Ocampo indicates that Túpac Amaru I, successor of Titu Cusi and last Inca of Vilcabamba, would have grown up in this place.

Between the viceroyalty and the republic (17th century-19th century)

After the fall of the kingdom of Vilcabamba in 1572 and the consolidation of Spanish power in the central Andes, Machu Picchu remained within the jurisdiction of different haciendas that changed hands several times until Republican times (since 1821). However, it had already become a remote place, far from the new roads and economic axes of the viceroyalty of Peru. The region was almost ignored by the viceregal regime (which did not order the construction of Christian temples or administer any town in the area), although not by Andean man.

Indeed, the agricultural sector of Machu Picchu does not seem to have been completely uninhabited or unknown: documents from 1657[64]​ and 1782[65]​ allude to Machu Picchu, as lands of agricultural interest. Its main buildings, however, those in its urban area, do not seem to have been occupied and were soon overtaken by the vegetation of the cloud forest.

Machu Picchu in the 19th century

In 1865, in the course of his exploration trips through Peru, the Italian naturalist Antonio Raimondi passed by the ruins without knowing it and alluded to the small population in the region at that time. However, in those years, the area began to receive visits for interests other than scientific ones.

Indeed, an ongoing investigation, disclosed in the late 2000s,[66] reveals information about the German businessman Augusto Berns"), who in 1867 not only "discovered" the ruins, but also founded a "mining" company to exploit the alleged "treasures" they housed (the Compañía Anónima Explotadora de las Huacas del Inca). According to this source, between 1867 and 1870, and With the permission of José Balta's government, the company would have operated in the area and then sold "everything it found" to European and North American collectors.[67]​.

Connected or not with this alleged company (whose existence hopes to be confirmed by other sources and authors), the truth is that it is at those moments when the mining prospecting maps begin to mention Machu Picchu. Thus, in 1870, the American Harry Singer placed the location of the Machu Picchu hill on a map for the first time and referred to Huayna Picchu as "Punta Huaca del Inca." The name reveals an unprecedented relationship between the Incas and the mountain and even suggests a religious character (a huaca in the Ancient Andes was a sacred place).[68]​ A second map from 1874, prepared by the German Herman Gohring, mentions and locates both mountains in their exact location.[69]​ Finally in 1880 the French explorer Charles Wiener confirms the existence of archaeological remains in the place (he states "I was told about other cities, Huayna). Picchu and Machu Picchu"), although it cannot reach the site.[70]​ In any case, it is clear that the existence of the alleged "lost city" had not been forgotten, as was believed until years ago.

Rediscovery of Machu Picchu (1894-1911)

The first direct references to visitors to Machu Picchu indicate that Agustín Lizárraga, a Cusco land tenant, arrived at the site on July 14, 1902, guiding fellow Cusco natives Gabino Sánchez, Enrique Palma and Justo Ochoa.[71]​ The visitors left graffiti with their names on one of the walls of the Temple of the Three Windows that would be verified by several people.[72]​ There is information that suggests that Lizárraga had already visited Machu Picchu in the company of Luis Béjar in 1894.[73] Lizárraga showed the constructions to the "visitors", although the nature of his activities has not been investigated to this day.[74]​.

Hiram Bingham, an American history professor interested in finding the last Inca strongholds of Vilcabamba, heard about Lizárraga from his contacts with local landowners and wrote in his diary: "Agustín Lizárraga is the discoverer of Machu Picchu and lives on the San Miguel bridge, just before passing...".[75][76]​ This is how he arrived at Machu Picchu on July 24, 1911 guided by another land tenant, Melchor Arteaga, and accompanied by a sergeant of the Peruvian civil guard named Carrasco.[77] They found two families of peasants living there, the Recharte and the Álvarez, who used the southern platforms of the ruins to cultivate and drank water from an Inca canal that still functioned and brought water from a spring. Pablo Recharte, one of the children of Machu Picchu, guided Bingham towards the "urban area" covered by undergrowth.[78]​.

Bingham was very impressed by what he saw and arranged the auspices of Yale University, the National Geographic Society and the Peruvian Government to immediately begin the scientific study of the site.[79] Thus, with the engineer Ellwood Erdis, the osteologist George Eaton, the direct participation of Toribio Recharte and Anacleto Álvarez, and a group of anonymous workers from the area, Bingham directed archaeological work at Machu Picchu from 1912 to 1915, a period in which the undergrowth was cleared and Inca tombs were excavated outside the city walls. The "public life" of Machu Picchu begins in 1913 with the publication of all this in an article in National Geographic magazine.

Although it is clear that Bingham did not discover Machu Picchu in the strict sense of the word (no one did since it was never really "lost"), there is no doubt that he had the merit of being the first person to recognize the importance of the ruins, studying them with a multidisciplinary team and disseminating his findings. This is despite the fact that the archaeological criteria used were not the most appropriate from the current perspective,[80]​ and despite, also, the controversy that until today surrounds the more than irregular departure from the country of the excavated archaeological material[81]​ (which consists of at least 46,332 pieces) and which only in March 2011 began to be returned to Peru.[82]​.

Machu Picchu since 1915

Between 1924 and 1928 Martín Chambi and Juan Manuel Figueroa took a series of photographs in Machu Picchu that were published in different Peruvian magazines, massifying local interest in the ruins and turning them into a national symbol.[83] As the decades passed, and especially since the opening in 1948 of a motorable road that ascended the mountain slope to the ruins from the train station, Machu Picchu became in the main tourist destination of Peru. During the first two thirds of the century, however, interest in its tourist exploitation was greater than that in conservation and study of the ruins, which did not prevent some notable researchers from advancing in solving the mysteries of Machu Picchu, highlighting in particular the work of the Viking Found directed by Paul Fejos on the Inca sites around Machu Picchu ("discovering" several establishments on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu) and the investigations of Luis E. Valcárcel that linked for the first time the site with Pachacutec. It is from the 1970s that new generations of archaeologists (Chávez Ballón, Lorenzo, Ramos Condori, Zapata, Sánchez, Valencia, Gibaja), historians (Glave y Remy, Rowe, Angles), astronomers (Dearborn, White, Thomson) and anthropologists (Reinhard, Urton) take up the investigation of the ruins and their past.

The establishment of an Ecological Protection Zone around the ruins in 1981, the inclusion of Machu Picchu as a member of the World Heritage List in 1983 and the adoption of a Master Plan for the sustainable development of the region in 2005 have been the most important milestones in the effort to conserve Machu Picchu and its environment. However, some poor partial restorations in the past have conspired against these efforts,[84]​ forest fires such as the one in 1997, and political conflicts that arose in nearby towns for the sake of a better distribution of the resources obtained by the State in the administration of the ruins.

Recent events

• - On September 8, 2000, while filming a commercial for Cusqueña beer (Backus & Johnston), a used crane falls on the Intihuatana ("sundial"), breaking about 8 cm of the tip. The case led to a lawsuit by the INC and the request for the respective compensation, in 2005.[85]​.

• - In July 2003 the singer Gloria Estefan visited it and recorded in its landscapes the video clip with lyrics by the Peruvian singer-songwriter Gian Marco for the song «Hoy "Hoy (Gloria Estefan song)")» from the album Unwrapped.

• - On November 10, 2003, the Congress of Peru issued law 28100, which establishes that 10% of the income collected from entering the archaeological park of Machu Picchu, administered by the National Institute of Culture, will be allocated to the municipality of Machu Picchu.[86]​.

• - On July 12, 2006, the Congress of Peru issues Law 28778 for the repatriation of archaeological objects that are part of the Machu Picchu collection of the Peabody Museum of Yale University in the United States, which were authorized to leave the country by Supreme Decrees 1529 of October 31, 1912 and by Supreme Decrees 31 of January 27, 1912. 1916.[87]​.

• - In June 2007, actress Cameron Diaz visited her to make a documentary for the CTV network program 4Real.

• - In 2007, the Government of Peru decreed July 7 as the "Day of the Historical Sanctuary of Machu Picchu, New Wonder of the World", because on July 7, 2007, Machupicchu was named as one of the winners on the list of the New Wonders of the World.

• - In September 2007, Yale University stated that it will return 4,000 archaeological pieces found by Hiram Bingham and that it will act as a promoter of their exhibition in a traveling museum and in a museum in Cusco.[88]​.

• - On October 26, 2015, the town of Machu Picchu signed for the first time the city twinning agreement with Otama-mura, from the Fukushima prefecture of Japan. Both towns reached the city twinning agreement for the first time. The town of Machu Picchu receives many requests for this agreement from all over the world because it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but decided to sign its first agreement with Otama-mura, where the first mayor of the town of Machu Picchu, Yokichi Nouchi (1895-1969), was born, who emigrated to Peru at the age of twenty-one and contributed to its economic and tourism development.

El área edificada en Machu Picchu es de 530 metros de largo por 200 de ancho e incluye al menos 172 recintos. El complejo está bien dividido en grandes zonas: la agrícola, formada por conjuntos de terrazas de cultivo, que se encuentra al sur; y la zona urbana, que es, por supuesto, aquella donde vivieron sus ocupantes y donde se desarrollaron las principales actividades civiles y religiosas. Ambas zonas están separadas por un muro, un foso y una escalinata, elementos que corren paralelos por la cuesta este de la montaña.[89]​.

agricultural area

The platforms "Andén (agriculture)") (cultivation terraces) of Machu Picchu look like large steps built on the hillside. They are structures made up of a stone wall and a filling of different layers of material (large stones, smaller stones, gravel, clay and arable land) that facilitate drainage, preventing water from pooling in them (take into account the high rainfall in the area) and their structure from collapsing. This type of construction allowed cultivation on them until the first decade of the century. Other platforms of smaller width are found in the lower part of Machu Picchu, around the entire city. Its function was not agricultural, but rather to serve as retaining walls.

Five large buildings are located on the platforms to the east of the Inca trail that reaches Machu Picchu from the south. They were used as colcas or warehouses. To the west of the road there are two other large sets of platforms: some concentric with a semicircular cut and others straight.

urban area

A wall about 400 meters long divides the city from the agricultural area. Parallel to the wall runs a "moat" used as the main drainage of the city. At the top of the wall is the door to Machu Picchu, which had an internal closing mechanism. The urban area has been divided by current archaeologists into groups of buildings named by a number between 1 and 18. The scheme proposed by Chávez Ballón in 1961 is still valid, dividing it into a hanan (upper) sector and another hurin (lower) sector in accordance with the traditional bipartition of Andean society and hierarchy. The physical axis of this division is an elongated plaza, built on terraces at different levels according to the slope of the mountain.

The second most important axis of the city forms a cross with the previous one, crossing almost the entire width of the ruins from east to west. It consists of two elements: a wide and long staircase that serves as the "main street" and a set of elaborate water fountains that runs parallel to it. At the intersection of both axes are the Inca residence, the temple-observatory of the tower, and the first and most important of the water sources.

El Conjunto 1 incluye estructuras relacionadas con la atención a quienes llegaban a la ciudad por la puerta (un «área vestibular»),[90]​ establos para camélidos, talleres, cocinas y habitaciones. All of this on the east side of the road, in a succession of parallel streets that go down the mountain slope. The most important construction, the vestibular building, had two floors and several entrances. A la mano izquierda del camino de ingreso hay habitaciones de menor rango que estarían relacionadas con el trabajo en las canteras, situadas en las inmediaciones de este sector. All the constructions are of common rig and many of them were plastered and painted.

It is accessed through a double jamb doorway, which remained closed (there are remains of a security mechanism). The main building is known as “Torreón”, made of blocks with fine carvings. It was used for ceremonies related to the June solstice.[91] One of its windows shows traces of having had embedded ornaments that were torn off at some point in the history of Machu Picchu, destroying part of its structure. In addition, there are traces of a large fire in the area. The Keep is built on a large rock beneath which there is a small cave that has been completely lined with fine masonry. It is believed that it was a mausoleum and that mummies rested in its large niches. Lumbreras even speculates that there are indications to affirm that it could have been the mausoleum of Pachacutec and that his mummy was there until shortly after the Spanish invasion of Cuzco.[92]​.

Of the buildings intended for housing, this is the finest, largest and best distributed in Machu Picchu. Its access door leads to the first fountain of the city and, crossing the "street" formed by the great staircase, to the Temple of the Sun. It includes two rooms with large monolithic lintels and well-carved stone walls. One of those rooms has access to a utility room with a drainage channel. The complex includes a pen for camelids and a private terrace with views of the eastern side of the city.

This is the name given to a group of buildings arranged around a square patio. All evidence indicates that the place was used for different rituals. It includes two of the best buildings in Machu Picchu, which are made up of large carved rocks: the Temple of the Three Windows, whose walls of large polygonal blocks were assembled like a puzzle, and the Main Temple, made of more regular blocks, which is believed to have been the main ceremonial site of the city. Attached to the latter is the so-called "priest's house" or "chamber of ornaments." There are indications that the general complex was not completed.

It is a hill whose flanks were converted into terraces, taking the shape of a large pyramid with a polygonal base. It includes two long access stairs, to the north and south, the latter being especially interesting because it is on a long stretch carved into a single rock. At the top, surrounded by elite constructions, is the Intihuatana stone ('where the Sun is moored'), one of the most studied objects of Machu Picchu, which has been related to a series of places considered sacred, from which clear alignments are established between astronomical events and the surrounding mountains.[93]​.

This is the name given to a flat-faced stone placed on a wide pedestal. It is a landmark that marks the northern end of the city and is the starting point of the road to Huayna Picchu.

It is a large architectural complex dominated by three large kanchas arranged symmetrically and connected to each other. Its covers, of identical construction, face the main square of Machu Picchu. Includes homes and workshops.[94]​.

It is the largest complex in the city, despite which it had only one entrance door, something that could suggest that it was the Acllahuasi (or 'house of chosen women') of Machu Picchu, dedicated to religious service and fine crafts. It includes a famous well-carved stone room on the floor of which are two rock outcrops carved in the shape of circular mortars, supposedly for grinding grains. Some authors think that they were filled with water and the stars were reflected in them. The set includes evidence of ritual use; There are altars and even a court built around a large rock. Part of its environments show that they have been elite residences.[95]​.

It is a large set of constructions, with a not always regular outline, that takes advantage of the contours of the rocks. It includes some caves with evidence of ritual use and a large carved stone in the center of a large patio in which many believe they see the representation of a condor. To the south of the "condor" are elite homes, which had the only private access to one of the sources of Machu Picchu. Between the houses and the condor patio, clear remains of buildings dedicated to raising guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) have been identified.

It is a complex made up of a large staircase next to which runs a system of 16 artificial water falls, most of which are carefully carved in polygonal blocks, surrounded by channels carved into the rock. The water comes from a spring at the heights of the Machu Picchu hill that was channeled in the times of the Empire. An additional system at the top of the mountain collects rain seepage from the mountain and diverts it to the main channel.[96]​.

Quarry area

At the top, just after entering from the main street, there are six rooms, connected by a staircase. These are rustic buildings that surely served as housing for the guardians of the main gate, as well as the stonemasons, carvers and stone workers, since the quarry is very close to this group.

In archaeological excavations carried out, pots, plates, water dishes, wells, a stone mill and burnt earth have been found; From these it is deduced that it was cooked for a large number of people and chicha was prepared (excavations by Julinho Zapara). Also in relation to this area, a number of tools and very hard stones were found.

This quarry area shows a diversity of carved or semi-carved rocks, with cuts for construction, among which are channels, inlets and outlets, half-cut rocks and ramps to move them. The precincts in this area are related to the construction material suppliers for the different areas or clusters of the city.

The entire original area where Machu Picchu was settled was a large quarry that geologists call "the granite chaos." The rocks, which were transformed into lithic polyhedra and transported to the site, are of different qualities. There they received the finishing and final carving. Polishing would be carried out after being placed on the facing; for example, in the animal temple.

As a curious detail, it should be noted that there is a stone with indentations or cracks made to extract new stones during some of the restorations. Some poorly informed guides often show it, stating that wet logs were placed in the grooves that, when expanded, caused the fracture. Such an explanation is only possible in the imagination.

Between 2017 and 2019, investigations carried out by the Italian Mission of the CNR, led by Nicola Masini, revealed the presence of a large quarry under the Main Square, which was used to reconstruct the first architectural structures. The quarry was the subject of drainage works and was finally covered in two phases, one of which was a sunken plaza, up to the current plaza.[97]​.

Hydraulic and soil engineering

A stone city built on top of an "isthmus" between two mountains and between two geological faults, in a region subject to constant earthquakes and, above all, copious rainfall all year round, represents a challenge for any builder: to prevent the entire complex from collapsing. According to Alfredo Valencia and Keneth Wright, "the secret of Machu Picchu's longevity is its drainage system."[98] Indeed, the soil of its unroofed areas is provided with a drainage system that consists of layers of gravel (crushed stones) and rocks to prevent the stagnation of rainwater. 129 drainage channels[99] extend throughout the urban area, designed to prevent splashing and erosion, most of which flow into the "moat" that separates the urban area from the agricultural area, which was actually the main drainage of the city. It is estimated that sixty percent of the construction effort at Machu Picchu was in making the foundations on terraces filled with gravel for good drainage of excess water.[100]​.

Construction orientation

There is solid evidence that the builders took into account astronomical and ritual criteria for construction, according to studies by Dearborn, White, Thomson and Reinhard, among others. Indeed, the alignment of some important buildings coincides with the solar azimuth during the solstices in a constant and therefore not at all casual manner,[101]​ with the rising and setting points of the sun at certain times of the year and with the summits of the surrounding mountains.[102]​.

Architecture

• - All preserved constructions are made of whitish granite, composed of 60% feldspar, 30% quartz and 10% mica.[103] All the material came from the quarries located around the Inca complex.

• - The rock has between 6 and 7 degrees of hardness on the Mohs scale. In the Empire this was worked with bars and other bronze tools (iron tools were not used in ancient Peru) and hammers made of harder rocks. The rocks were smoothed by abrasion with sand.[104]​.

• - Almost all the buildings are rectangular in plan. There are one, two and even eight doors, normally on only one of the long sides of the rectangle. There are few buildings with a curved and circular plan.

• - Constructions called huayranas are common. These have only three walls. In these cases, in the space of the "missing wall" a stone colonnade sometimes appears to support a wooden beam that served as support for the roof. There are also double huayranas, two huayranas joined by a party wall, which are called masmas.

• - The constructions usually follow the scheme of the kanchas"); that is, four rectangular constructions arranged around a central patio joined by an axis of transversal symmetry.[105]​ All the doors open onto this patio.

The rigging of the stone walls was basically of two types.

• - Made of ordinary stone joined with clay mortar and other substances. There is evidence that these constructions, which are the majority in Machu Picchu, were plastered with a layer of clay and painted (in yellow and red at least),[106]​[107]​ although the early disintegration of the roofs made them vulnerable to the permanent rain in the area and therefore they have not been preserved.

• - Finely carved stone in elite constructions. They are granite blocks, without plastering and with perfect carvings in the shape of rectangular (parallelepipeds, like bricks) or polygonal prisms. Their exterior faces could be padded, that is, protuberant, or smooth. In these cases the union of the blocks seems perfect and has led to the assumption that it does not have any type of mortar "Mortar (construction)"); but in fact it does have it: it is a thin layer of binding material that is between stone and stone, although it is invisible on the outside.[108]​ The effort of these creations in a society without iron tools (they only knew bronze, much softer) is notable.

No original roof has been preserved, but there is consensus that most of the buildings had a gable or hipped roof; There was even a conical roof over the "tower", and it was made up of a framework of alder trunks (Alnus acuminata)[109]​ tied and covered by layers of ichu (Stipa ichu). The fragility of this type of straw and the copiousness of the rains in the region made it necessary for these roofs to have large inclinations of up to 63º[110] Thus, the height of the roofs many times doubled the height of the rest of the building.

• - As is classic in Inca architecture, most of the doorways, windows and niches (called false windows, niches or cupboards) have a trapezoidal shape, wider at the base than at the lintel. Lintels could be made of wood or stone (often made of a single large block). The doors of the most important rooms had double jambs and in some cases included an internal closing mechanism.

• - The interior walls of many of the buildings have trapezoidal niches, next to the windows. Cylindrical or rectangular blocks often protrude from the walls like large coat racks, arranged symmetrically with the niches and windows, when they exist.

Machu Picchu, as an integral part of a region of great economic movement in the times of Pachacutec, was integrated into the network of Inca roads of the Empire. Using these routes you can, until today, access other nearby Inca complexes that are of great interest. To the north, through the forks of the Huayna Picchu road you can reach the so-called Temple of the Moon or the top of the mountain where there are Inca constructions. To the west is the road that leads to Intipata") and passes through the famous drawbridge. Another road, along which Agustín Lizárraga ascended, leads to the river and San Miguel.

To the south, however, is the best-known and main route of all, which is the most popular hiking route in Peru. The Inca trail to Machu Picchu is a three- to four-day route that crosses what, at the end of the century, was the main access route to Machu Picchu, which began in the Llactapata complex and passed through the ceremonial centers of Sayacmarca, Phuyupatamarca) and Huiñay Huayna, to end at the tambo of Intipunku, the "gateway" at the entrance to the Machu Picchu domain and the end point of the tour.

• - Hiram Bingham se llevó 5000 piezas arqueológicas a la Universidad de Yale, producto de las excavaciones en Machu Picchu. Durante mucho tiempo fueron reclamadas por el gobierno peruano hasta que en el 2007 se llegó a un acuerdo. Se esperaba su devolución a finales del 2009,[111]​ sin embargo, esta no se dio. La Universidad de Yale confirmó la devolución de las piezas en el 2011, al conmemorarse el centenario del redescubrimiento de Machu Picchu por Bingham.

• - En mayo de 2005, la antigua ciudad jordana de Petra se «hermana» con la de Machu Picchu.[112]​.

• - Gloria Estefan grabó en esta llacta incaica el videoclip de su canción "Hoy" compuesta por el peruano Gian Marco.[113]​.

• - El grupo musical chileno Los Jaivas inmortaliza el poema de Pablo Neruda Alturas de Machu Picchu "Alturas de Machu Picchu (poema)") filmando un clip de las canciones del álbum homónimo "Alturas de Machu Picchu (álbum)") en Machu Picchu en el año 1980.[114]​ Este disco es considerado uno de los mejores álbumes de la música chilena.

• - En un cómic de Supermán, aparece Machu Picchu, en una escena donde Supermán se encuentra reflexionando, luego se inicia una batalla, donde una de las paredes queda destruida.[115]​.

• - Es común que se divulgue entre los turistas que «si se mira de costado se puede apreciar la cara de un hombre» (muchas veces referido como un inca).

• - Machu Picchu le da su nombre a la base peruana de investigación científica ubicada en la isla Rey Jorge, en la Antártida.

• - En 1971, Werner Herzog rueda en Machu Picchu la espectacular escena de arranque de su largometraje Aguirre, la cólera de Dios.

• - En el verano del 2009 se filmó en la ciudadela alguna de las secuencias míticas del documental Quantum Men, dirigida por Carlos Serrano Azcona, protagonizada por Cristóbal Jodorowsky.

• - En Top Gear (videojuego) "Top Gear (videojuego)") y Top Gear 2 de la consola SNES, uno de los circuitos es Machu Picchu en el Nivel "Nivel (videojuegos)") South America (Sudamérica).

New wonder of the world

On July 7, 2007, Machu Picchu was chosen as one of the new seven wonders of the modern world, a private initiative of the New Open World Corporation (NOWC), created by the Swiss Bernard Weber"), not needing the endorsement of any institution or government to continue with its electoral purposes and allow selecting the wonders classified by the vote of more than one hundred million voters.[116]​[117]​[118]​[119]​ This vote was supported by the government of Alan García Pérez, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Tourism sector; this dissemination had its fruits in a great participation of the Peruvian people as a whole and also in the international arena.[120] When the results were known, President Alan García declared by supreme decree, July 7 as "Day of the Historical Sanctuary of Machu Picchu", to remember the importance of the sanctuary for the world, recognize the participation of the Peruvian people in the vote and promote the tourism.[121]​.

The New Seven Wonders of the Modern World were chosen by popular vote based on aesthetic, economic, tourist and recreational criteria rather than for their historical importance or artistic merit, which is why they do not have the support of institutions such as UNESCO.[122]​ However, the distinction has a great echo, which results in an important additional claim for attracting tourism. In fact, Machu Picchu is today the main tourist destination in Peru with 600,000 visitors/year (according to MINCETUR) and one of the most desired by travelers from all over the world.

In 2023, the plaque and parchment that recognizes it were missing.[123]​.

• - The Paramount Pictures film Secret of the Incas (1955), with Charlton Heston and Yma Súmac, was filmed on location in Cusco and Machu Picchu, the first time a major Hollywood studio filmed on location. Five hundred indigenous people were hired as extras in the film.

• - The opening sequence of the film Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) was filmed in the Machu Picchu area and on the stone steps of Huayna Picchu.

• - Machu Picchu was featured in the film Motorcycle Diaries "Motorcycle Diaries (film)") (2004), a biographical film based on the 1952 youthful travel memoirs of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara.

• - NOVA's television documentary Ghosts of Machu Picchu presents an elaborate documentary about the mysteries of Machu Picchu.

• - Contemporary multimedia artist Kimsooja used Macchu Picchu as the main setting for the first episode of her film series Thread Routes"), filmed in 2010.

• - In 2019, the movie Godzilla: King of the Monsters mentions the citadel of Machu Picchu, as one of the locations where the Titan Quetzalcóatl remains hidden.

• - In its seventh release, "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts"[124]​ (2023) took the Autobots to Machupicchu and more sacred places in Cusco.

Theater

• - "The dream of Machupikchu", by Millán Picouto"), third tragedy, in one act and in verse, of the "Inca Trilogy", included in the volume of his complete works El macrocosmos, Ediciones Linteo, 2021. ISBN 978-84-123801-0-1.

The song "Kilimanjaro", from the South Indian film Tamil Enthiran (2010), was filmed in Machu Picchu. Sanction for the shoot was given only after direct intervention by the Indian government.

• - Wikimedia Commons hosts a multimedia gallery about Machu Picchu.

• - Wikiviajes hosts travel guides to or about Machu Picchu.

• - Dispute with Yale University, March 1, 2006.

• - Declaration of the historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

• - Official website of Machu Picchu Archived November 19, 2019 at the Wayback Machine.

• - PromPerú website.

In the Quechua language, machu means 'old or elderly', while pikchu means 'peak, mountain or prominence with a wide base ending in sharp points'; Therefore, the name of the site means 'old mountain'.[28]​.

Site

It is located at 13°9'47" south latitude and 72°32'44" west longitude. It is part of the district of the same name, in the province of Urubamba, in the department of Cusco, in Peru. The closest major city is Cusco, current regional capital and former capital of the Incas, 132 kilometers from there.

The Machu Picchu "Machu Picchu (mountain)" and Huayna Picchu mountains are part of a large orographic formation known as the Vilcabamba batholith, in the Central Cordillera of the Peruvian Andes. They are located on the left bank of the so-called Urubamba Canyon, known in ancient times as Quebrada de Picchu.[29] At the foot of the hills, surrounding them, the Vilcanota-Urubamba river runs. The Inca archaeological site is located halfway between the tops of both mountains, 450 meters above the valley level and 2,438 meters above sea level. The built surface is about 530 meters by 200 meters wide, it has 172 buildings in its urban area. It is located in the Peruvian Yungas ecoregion.

The city is located within an intangible territory of the National System of Natural Areas Protected by the State (SINANPE),[30] called the Historical Sanctuary of Machu Picchu, which extends over an area of ​​32,592 hectares (80,535 acres or 325.92 km²) of the Vilcanota-Urubamba river basin (the Willka mayu or 'sacred river' of the Incas). The Historical Sanctuary protects a series of biological species in danger of extinction and several Inca establishments,[31]​ among which Machu Picchu is considered the main one.

Forms of access

The archaeological zone is accessible, either from the post-Inca roads that reach it, or by using the Hiram Bingham highway (which ascends the slope of Machu Picchu hill from the old Puente Ruinas train station, at the bottom of the canyon "Canyon (geomorphology)"). Neither way exempts the visitor from the entrance fee to the complex.[32] The aforementioned highway, however, is not integrated into the national highway network of Peru. It is born in the town of Aguas Calientes "Aguas Calientes (Machupicchu)"), which in turn can only be accessed by rail (about three hours from Cusco)[33]​ or helicopter (30 minutes from Cusco). The absence of a direct road to the Machu Picchu sanctuary is intentional and allows controlling the flow of visitors to the area, which, given its nature as a national reserve, is sensitive to crowds. This, however, has not prevented the disorderly growth (criticized by cultural authorities) of Aguas Calientes, which lives by and for tourism, since there are hotels and restaurants of different categories in this place.[34]​.

• - On these prices there is a 50% discount for people over 60 years of age, disabled people and students.

To get to Machu Picchu along the main Inca trail you must take a three-day walk. To do this, it is necessary to take a train or bus to km 82 of the Cusco-Aguas Calientes railway line, which coincides with the limit of the Machu Picchu national park, from where the walking tour begins.[36] Some visitors take a local bus from Cusco to Ollantaytambo (via Urubamba) and from there take transportation to the aforementioned km 82. Once there, they travel along the train tracks until they cover the 32 km to Aguas Calientes. Currently, buses go to the hydroelectric plant, nine kilometers from Aguas Calientes, which is a three-hour walk, which is the same route the train takes.

Climate

The temperature is warm with humid air during the day, and cool at night, ranging between 12 and 24 degrees Celsius. The area is very rainy, especially between November and March. The rains, which are copious, alternate quickly with intense sunshine.[37]​.

Geography

The entire archaeological site has been built on the Vilcabamba batholith, composed of intrusive rocks dating back about 250 million years, Permo-Triassic intrusives[38]​with a main base of white to grayish granite, cut by some veins of tonalites and talceschists. The granite massif is cut by a series of faults and joints that play an important role in the current formation of the relief and its evolution. On the Geological Map of the Machu Picchu Quadrangle (27-q) of the Geological Mining and Metallurgical Institute of Peru, two large regional strike-slip faults are observed that cut the area, called the Huayna Picchu and Machu Picchu Faults, with a NE-SW orientation. These faults have had no recent activity.[39]​.

Contenido

La quebrada de Picchu, a medio camino entre los Andes y la floresta amazónica, fue una región colonizada por poblaciones andinas, no selváticas, provenientes de las regiones de Vilcabamba y del Valle Sagrado, en Cusco, en busca de una expansión de sus fronteras agrarias. Las evidencias arqueológicas indican que la agricultura se practicaba en la región desde al menos el 760 a. C.[40]​ Una explosión demográfica se da a partir del período Horizonte Medio, desde el año 900 de esta era, por grupos no documentados históricamente, pero que es posible estuvieron vinculados a la etnia tampu del Urubamba. Se cree que estos pueblos podrían haber formado parte de la federación Ayarmaca, rivales de los primeros incas del Cusco.[41]​ En ese período se expande por una considerable área agrícola «construida» (andenes). No obstante, el emplazamiento específico (la cresta rocosa que une las montañas Machu Picchu y Huayna Picchu) no presenta huellas de haber tenido edificaciones antes del siglo .[42]​.

Inca era (1475-1534)

Around 1430, during his campaign towards Vilcabamba, the Picchu ravine was conquered by Pachacutec,[43]​ the first Inca of Tahuantinsuyo (1438-1470). The site of Machu Picchu must have impressed the monarch due to its peculiar characteristics within the sacred geography of Cusco,[44]​ and for this reason he would have ordered the construction there, around 1450, of an urban complex with luxurious civil and religious buildings.[45]​.

It is believed that Machu Picchu had a mobile population like most of the Inca llactas, which ranged between 300 and 1000 inhabitants[46]​ belonging to an elite (possible members of the panaca of Pachacútec)[47]​ and acllas. It has been shown that the agricultural force was made up of mitimaes or mitmas slaves (Quechua: mitmaqkuna) from different corners of the empire, it is estimated that the largest number of these were the Chancas, who also built the fortress, being enslaved and stripped of their lands (present-day Apurímac and Ayacucho) after being defeated by Pachacutec.[48]​.

Machu Picchu was by no means an isolated complex, so the myth of the "lost city" and the "secret refuge" of the Inca rulers lacks basis. The valleys that converged in the ravine formed a region with a dense population that dramatically increased its agricultural productivity after the Inca occupation in 1440. They would have been insufficient to supply the pre-Hispanic population.[51]​ Intra-regional communication was possible thanks to the Inca road networks: eight roads reached Machu Picchu.[52]​ The small city of Picchu came to be differentiated from neighboring towns by the singular quality of its main buildings.

Upon the death of Pachacútec, and in accordance with royal Inca customs, this and the rest of his personal properties would have passed to the administration of his panaca, which was to allocate the income produced to the cult of the mummy of the deceased Inca.[53] It is presumed that this situation would have been maintained during the governments of Túpac Yupanqui (1470-1493) and Huayna Cápac (1493-1529).

Machu Picchu must have partly lost its importance as it had to compete in prestige with the personal properties of the successor sovereigns. In fact, the opening of a safer and wider road between Ollantaytambo and Vilcabamba (that of the Amaybamba valley) made the Picchu ravine route less used.[54]​.

Transitional period (1534-1572)

The Inca civil war (1531-1532) and the Spanish invasion of Cusco in 1534 must have greatly affected life in Machu Picchu. The peasant mass of the region was made up of mitmaes, settlers from different nations conquered by the Incas who were forcibly taken there. They took advantage of the fall of the Cusco economic system to return to their lands of origin.[55]​ The Inca resistance against the Spanish led by Manco Inca in 1536 summoned the nobles of the nearby regions to join his court in the exile of Vilcabamba,[56]​ and it is very likely that the main nobles of Picchu had then abandoned the city. Documents from the time indicate that the region was full of "despopulated" at that time.[57]​ Picchu would have continued to be inhabited, as it was considered a tributary population of the Spanish encomienda of Ollantaytambo.[58]​ This does not mean that the Spanish visited Machu Picchu frequently; In fact, we know that the tribute from Picchu was delivered to the Spanish once a year in the town of Ollantaytambo, and not "collected" locally.[59]​ In any case, it is clear that the Spanish knew about the place, although there is no indication that it was frequently visited by the Spanish each year. Colonial documents mention the name of the person who was curaca (perhaps the last) of Machu Picchu in 1568: Juan Mácora.[60]​ That he was called "Juan" indicates that he had been, at least nominally, baptized, and, therefore, subject to Spanish influence.

Another document[61]​ indicates that the Inca Titu Cusi Yupanqui, who then reigned in Vilcabamba, asked that Augustinian friars come to evangelize "Piocho" around 1570. There is no known place name in the area that sounds similar to Piocho other than Piccho or Picchu, which makes Lumbreras suppose that the famous "extirpaters of idolatries")" could have arrived to the site and having had to do with the destruction and burning of the tower of the Temple of the Sun.[62]​.

The Spanish soldier Baltasar de Ocampo") wrote at the end of the century about a town "on top of a mountain" with "very sumptuous" buildings and that housed a large acllahuasi (house of the chosen ones) in the last years of the Inca resistance. The brief description he makes of its environments refers us to Picchu. The most interesting thing is that Ocampo says it is called Pitcos. The only place with a similar name is Vitcos, a site Inca in Vilcabamba completely different from that described by Ocampo. The other natural candidate is Picchu.[63] It is not known to this day if it is the same place. Ocampo indicates that Túpac Amaru I, successor of Titu Cusi and last Inca of Vilcabamba, would have grown up in this place.

Between the viceroyalty and the republic (17th century-19th century)

After the fall of the kingdom of Vilcabamba in 1572 and the consolidation of Spanish power in the central Andes, Machu Picchu remained within the jurisdiction of different haciendas that changed hands several times until Republican times (since 1821). However, it had already become a remote place, far from the new roads and economic axes of the viceroyalty of Peru. The region was almost ignored by the viceregal regime (which did not order the construction of Christian temples or administer any town in the area), although not by Andean man.

Indeed, the agricultural sector of Machu Picchu does not seem to have been completely uninhabited or unknown: documents from 1657[64]​ and 1782[65]​ allude to Machu Picchu, as lands of agricultural interest. Its main buildings, however, those in its urban area, do not seem to have been occupied and were soon overtaken by the vegetation of the cloud forest.

Machu Picchu in the 19th century

In 1865, in the course of his exploration trips through Peru, the Italian naturalist Antonio Raimondi passed by the ruins without knowing it and alluded to the small population in the region at that time. However, in those years, the area began to receive visits for interests other than scientific ones.

Indeed, an ongoing investigation, disclosed in the late 2000s,[66] reveals information about the German businessman Augusto Berns"), who in 1867 not only "discovered" the ruins, but also founded a "mining" company to exploit the alleged "treasures" they housed (the Compañía Anónima Explotadora de las Huacas del Inca). According to this source, between 1867 and 1870, and With the permission of José Balta's government, the company would have operated in the area and then sold "everything it found" to European and North American collectors.[67]​.

Connected or not with this alleged company (whose existence hopes to be confirmed by other sources and authors), the truth is that it is at those moments when the mining prospecting maps begin to mention Machu Picchu. Thus, in 1870, the American Harry Singer placed the location of the Machu Picchu hill on a map for the first time and referred to Huayna Picchu as "Punta Huaca del Inca." The name reveals an unprecedented relationship between the Incas and the mountain and even suggests a religious character (a huaca in the Ancient Andes was a sacred place).[68]​ A second map from 1874, prepared by the German Herman Gohring, mentions and locates both mountains in their exact location.[69]​ Finally in 1880 the French explorer Charles Wiener confirms the existence of archaeological remains in the place (he states "I was told about other cities, Huayna). Picchu and Machu Picchu"), although it cannot reach the site.[70]​ In any case, it is clear that the existence of the alleged "lost city" had not been forgotten, as was believed until years ago.

Rediscovery of Machu Picchu (1894-1911)

The first direct references to visitors to Machu Picchu indicate that Agustín Lizárraga, a Cusco land tenant, arrived at the site on July 14, 1902, guiding fellow Cusco natives Gabino Sánchez, Enrique Palma and Justo Ochoa.[71]​ The visitors left graffiti with their names on one of the walls of the Temple of the Three Windows that would be verified by several people.[72]​ There is information that suggests that Lizárraga had already visited Machu Picchu in the company of Luis Béjar in 1894.[73] Lizárraga showed the constructions to the "visitors", although the nature of his activities has not been investigated to this day.[74]​.

Hiram Bingham, an American history professor interested in finding the last Inca strongholds of Vilcabamba, heard about Lizárraga from his contacts with local landowners and wrote in his diary: "Agustín Lizárraga is the discoverer of Machu Picchu and lives on the San Miguel bridge, just before passing...".[75][76]​ This is how he arrived at Machu Picchu on July 24, 1911 guided by another land tenant, Melchor Arteaga, and accompanied by a sergeant of the Peruvian civil guard named Carrasco.[77] They found two families of peasants living there, the Recharte and the Álvarez, who used the southern platforms of the ruins to cultivate and drank water from an Inca canal that still functioned and brought water from a spring. Pablo Recharte, one of the children of Machu Picchu, guided Bingham towards the "urban area" covered by undergrowth.[78]​.

Bingham was very impressed by what he saw and arranged the auspices of Yale University, the National Geographic Society and the Peruvian Government to immediately begin the scientific study of the site.[79] Thus, with the engineer Ellwood Erdis, the osteologist George Eaton, the direct participation of Toribio Recharte and Anacleto Álvarez, and a group of anonymous workers from the area, Bingham directed archaeological work at Machu Picchu from 1912 to 1915, a period in which the undergrowth was cleared and Inca tombs were excavated outside the city walls. The "public life" of Machu Picchu begins in 1913 with the publication of all this in an article in National Geographic magazine.

Although it is clear that Bingham did not discover Machu Picchu in the strict sense of the word (no one did since it was never really "lost"), there is no doubt that he had the merit of being the first person to recognize the importance of the ruins, studying them with a multidisciplinary team and disseminating his findings. This is despite the fact that the archaeological criteria used were not the most appropriate from the current perspective,[80]​ and despite, also, the controversy that until today surrounds the more than irregular departure from the country of the excavated archaeological material[81]​ (which consists of at least 46,332 pieces) and which only in March 2011 began to be returned to Peru.[82]​.

Machu Picchu since 1915

Between 1924 and 1928 Martín Chambi and Juan Manuel Figueroa took a series of photographs in Machu Picchu that were published in different Peruvian magazines, massifying local interest in the ruins and turning them into a national symbol.[83] As the decades passed, and especially since the opening in 1948 of a motorable road that ascended the mountain slope to the ruins from the train station, Machu Picchu became in the main tourist destination of Peru. During the first two thirds of the century, however, interest in its tourist exploitation was greater than that in conservation and study of the ruins, which did not prevent some notable researchers from advancing in solving the mysteries of Machu Picchu, highlighting in particular the work of the Viking Found directed by Paul Fejos on the Inca sites around Machu Picchu ("discovering" several establishments on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu) and the investigations of Luis E. Valcárcel that linked for the first time the site with Pachacutec. It is from the 1970s that new generations of archaeologists (Chávez Ballón, Lorenzo, Ramos Condori, Zapata, Sánchez, Valencia, Gibaja), historians (Glave y Remy, Rowe, Angles), astronomers (Dearborn, White, Thomson) and anthropologists (Reinhard, Urton) take up the investigation of the ruins and their past.

The establishment of an Ecological Protection Zone around the ruins in 1981, the inclusion of Machu Picchu as a member of the World Heritage List in 1983 and the adoption of a Master Plan for the sustainable development of the region in 2005 have been the most important milestones in the effort to conserve Machu Picchu and its environment. However, some poor partial restorations in the past have conspired against these efforts,[84]​ forest fires such as the one in 1997, and political conflicts that arose in nearby towns for the sake of a better distribution of the resources obtained by the State in the administration of the ruins.

Recent events

• - On September 8, 2000, while filming a commercial for Cusqueña beer (Backus & Johnston), a used crane falls on the Intihuatana ("sundial"), breaking about 8 cm of the tip. The case led to a lawsuit by the INC and the request for the respective compensation, in 2005.[85]​.

• - In July 2003 the singer Gloria Estefan visited it and recorded in its landscapes the video clip with lyrics by the Peruvian singer-songwriter Gian Marco for the song «Hoy "Hoy (Gloria Estefan song)")» from the album Unwrapped.

• - On November 10, 2003, the Congress of Peru issued law 28100, which establishes that 10% of the income collected from entering the archaeological park of Machu Picchu, administered by the National Institute of Culture, will be allocated to the municipality of Machu Picchu.[86]​.

• - On July 12, 2006, the Congress of Peru issues Law 28778 for the repatriation of archaeological objects that are part of the Machu Picchu collection of the Peabody Museum of Yale University in the United States, which were authorized to leave the country by Supreme Decrees 1529 of October 31, 1912 and by Supreme Decrees 31 of January 27, 1912. 1916.[87]​.

• - In June 2007, actress Cameron Diaz visited her to make a documentary for the CTV network program 4Real.

• - In 2007, the Government of Peru decreed July 7 as the "Day of the Historical Sanctuary of Machu Picchu, New Wonder of the World", because on July 7, 2007, Machupicchu was named as one of the winners on the list of the New Wonders of the World.

• - In September 2007, Yale University stated that it will return 4,000 archaeological pieces found by Hiram Bingham and that it will act as a promoter of their exhibition in a traveling museum and in a museum in Cusco.[88]​.

• - On October 26, 2015, the town of Machu Picchu signed for the first time the city twinning agreement with Otama-mura, from the Fukushima prefecture of Japan. Both towns reached the city twinning agreement for the first time. The town of Machu Picchu receives many requests for this agreement from all over the world because it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but decided to sign its first agreement with Otama-mura, where the first mayor of the town of Machu Picchu, Yokichi Nouchi (1895-1969), was born, who emigrated to Peru at the age of twenty-one and contributed to its economic and tourism development.

El área edificada en Machu Picchu es de 530 metros de largo por 200 de ancho e incluye al menos 172 recintos. El complejo está bien dividido en grandes zonas: la agrícola, formada por conjuntos de terrazas de cultivo, que se encuentra al sur; y la zona urbana, que es, por supuesto, aquella donde vivieron sus ocupantes y donde se desarrollaron las principales actividades civiles y religiosas. Ambas zonas están separadas por un muro, un foso y una escalinata, elementos que corren paralelos por la cuesta este de la montaña.[89]​.

agricultural area

The platforms "Andén (agriculture)") (cultivation terraces) of Machu Picchu look like large steps built on the hillside. They are structures made up of a stone wall and a filling of different layers of material (large stones, smaller stones, gravel, clay and arable land) that facilitate drainage, preventing water from pooling in them (take into account the high rainfall in the area) and their structure from collapsing. This type of construction allowed cultivation on them until the first decade of the century. Other platforms of smaller width are found in the lower part of Machu Picchu, around the entire city. Its function was not agricultural, but rather to serve as retaining walls.

Five large buildings are located on the platforms to the east of the Inca trail that reaches Machu Picchu from the south. They were used as colcas or warehouses. To the west of the road there are two other large sets of platforms: some concentric with a semicircular cut and others straight.

urban area

A wall about 400 meters long divides the city from the agricultural area. Parallel to the wall runs a "moat" used as the main drainage of the city. At the top of the wall is the door to Machu Picchu, which had an internal closing mechanism. The urban area has been divided by current archaeologists into groups of buildings named by a number between 1 and 18. The scheme proposed by Chávez Ballón in 1961 is still valid, dividing it into a hanan (upper) sector and another hurin (lower) sector in accordance with the traditional bipartition of Andean society and hierarchy. The physical axis of this division is an elongated plaza, built on terraces at different levels according to the slope of the mountain.

The second most important axis of the city forms a cross with the previous one, crossing almost the entire width of the ruins from east to west. It consists of two elements: a wide and long staircase that serves as the "main street" and a set of elaborate water fountains that runs parallel to it. At the intersection of both axes are the Inca residence, the temple-observatory of the tower, and the first and most important of the water sources.

El Conjunto 1 incluye estructuras relacionadas con la atención a quienes llegaban a la ciudad por la puerta (un «área vestibular»),[90]​ establos para camélidos, talleres, cocinas y habitaciones. All of this on the east side of the road, in a succession of parallel streets that go down the mountain slope. The most important construction, the vestibular building, had two floors and several entrances. A la mano izquierda del camino de ingreso hay habitaciones de menor rango que estarían relacionadas con el trabajo en las canteras, situadas en las inmediaciones de este sector. All the constructions are of common rig and many of them were plastered and painted.

It is accessed through a double jamb doorway, which remained closed (there are remains of a security mechanism). The main building is known as “Torreón”, made of blocks with fine carvings. It was used for ceremonies related to the June solstice.[91] One of its windows shows traces of having had embedded ornaments that were torn off at some point in the history of Machu Picchu, destroying part of its structure. In addition, there are traces of a large fire in the area. The Keep is built on a large rock beneath which there is a small cave that has been completely lined with fine masonry. It is believed that it was a mausoleum and that mummies rested in its large niches. Lumbreras even speculates that there are indications to affirm that it could have been the mausoleum of Pachacutec and that his mummy was there until shortly after the Spanish invasion of Cuzco.[92]​.

Of the buildings intended for housing, this is the finest, largest and best distributed in Machu Picchu. Its access door leads to the first fountain of the city and, crossing the "street" formed by the great staircase, to the Temple of the Sun. It includes two rooms with large monolithic lintels and well-carved stone walls. One of those rooms has access to a utility room with a drainage channel. The complex includes a pen for camelids and a private terrace with views of the eastern side of the city.

This is the name given to a group of buildings arranged around a square patio. All evidence indicates that the place was used for different rituals. It includes two of the best buildings in Machu Picchu, which are made up of large carved rocks: the Temple of the Three Windows, whose walls of large polygonal blocks were assembled like a puzzle, and the Main Temple, made of more regular blocks, which is believed to have been the main ceremonial site of the city. Attached to the latter is the so-called "priest's house" or "chamber of ornaments." There are indications that the general complex was not completed.

It is a hill whose flanks were converted into terraces, taking the shape of a large pyramid with a polygonal base. It includes two long access stairs, to the north and south, the latter being especially interesting because it is on a long stretch carved into a single rock. At the top, surrounded by elite constructions, is the Intihuatana stone ('where the Sun is moored'), one of the most studied objects of Machu Picchu, which has been related to a series of places considered sacred, from which clear alignments are established between astronomical events and the surrounding mountains.[93]​.

This is the name given to a flat-faced stone placed on a wide pedestal. It is a landmark that marks the northern end of the city and is the starting point of the road to Huayna Picchu.

It is a large architectural complex dominated by three large kanchas arranged symmetrically and connected to each other. Its covers, of identical construction, face the main square of Machu Picchu. Includes homes and workshops.[94]​.

It is the largest complex in the city, despite which it had only one entrance door, something that could suggest that it was the Acllahuasi (or 'house of chosen women') of Machu Picchu, dedicated to religious service and fine crafts. It includes a famous well-carved stone room on the floor of which are two rock outcrops carved in the shape of circular mortars, supposedly for grinding grains. Some authors think that they were filled with water and the stars were reflected in them. The set includes evidence of ritual use; There are altars and even a court built around a large rock. Part of its environments show that they have been elite residences.[95]​.

It is a large set of constructions, with a not always regular outline, that takes advantage of the contours of the rocks. It includes some caves with evidence of ritual use and a large carved stone in the center of a large patio in which many believe they see the representation of a condor. To the south of the "condor" are elite homes, which had the only private access to one of the sources of Machu Picchu. Between the houses and the condor patio, clear remains of buildings dedicated to raising guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) have been identified.

It is a complex made up of a large staircase next to which runs a system of 16 artificial water falls, most of which are carefully carved in polygonal blocks, surrounded by channels carved into the rock. The water comes from a spring at the heights of the Machu Picchu hill that was channeled in the times of the Empire. An additional system at the top of the mountain collects rain seepage from the mountain and diverts it to the main channel.[96]​.

Quarry area

At the top, just after entering from the main street, there are six rooms, connected by a staircase. These are rustic buildings that surely served as housing for the guardians of the main gate, as well as the stonemasons, carvers and stone workers, since the quarry is very close to this group.

In archaeological excavations carried out, pots, plates, water dishes, wells, a stone mill and burnt earth have been found; From these it is deduced that it was cooked for a large number of people and chicha was prepared (excavations by Julinho Zapara). Also in relation to this area, a number of tools and very hard stones were found.

This quarry area shows a diversity of carved or semi-carved rocks, with cuts for construction, among which are channels, inlets and outlets, half-cut rocks and ramps to move them. The precincts in this area are related to the construction material suppliers for the different areas or clusters of the city.

The entire original area where Machu Picchu was settled was a large quarry that geologists call "the granite chaos." The rocks, which were transformed into lithic polyhedra and transported to the site, are of different qualities. There they received the finishing and final carving. Polishing would be carried out after being placed on the facing; for example, in the animal temple.

As a curious detail, it should be noted that there is a stone with indentations or cracks made to extract new stones during some of the restorations. Some poorly informed guides often show it, stating that wet logs were placed in the grooves that, when expanded, caused the fracture. Such an explanation is only possible in the imagination.

Between 2017 and 2019, investigations carried out by the Italian Mission of the CNR, led by Nicola Masini, revealed the presence of a large quarry under the Main Square, which was used to reconstruct the first architectural structures. The quarry was the subject of drainage works and was finally covered in two phases, one of which was a sunken plaza, up to the current plaza.[97]​.

Hydraulic and soil engineering

A stone city built on top of an "isthmus" between two mountains and between two geological faults, in a region subject to constant earthquakes and, above all, copious rainfall all year round, represents a challenge for any builder: to prevent the entire complex from collapsing. According to Alfredo Valencia and Keneth Wright, "the secret of Machu Picchu's longevity is its drainage system."[98] Indeed, the soil of its unroofed areas is provided with a drainage system that consists of layers of gravel (crushed stones) and rocks to prevent the stagnation of rainwater. 129 drainage channels[99] extend throughout the urban area, designed to prevent splashing and erosion, most of which flow into the "moat" that separates the urban area from the agricultural area, which was actually the main drainage of the city. It is estimated that sixty percent of the construction effort at Machu Picchu was in making the foundations on terraces filled with gravel for good drainage of excess water.[100]​.

Construction orientation

There is solid evidence that the builders took into account astronomical and ritual criteria for construction, according to studies by Dearborn, White, Thomson and Reinhard, among others. Indeed, the alignment of some important buildings coincides with the solar azimuth during the solstices in a constant and therefore not at all casual manner,[101]​ with the rising and setting points of the sun at certain times of the year and with the summits of the surrounding mountains.[102]​.

Architecture

• - All preserved constructions are made of whitish granite, composed of 60% feldspar, 30% quartz and 10% mica.[103] All the material came from the quarries located around the Inca complex.

• - The rock has between 6 and 7 degrees of hardness on the Mohs scale. In the Empire this was worked with bars and other bronze tools (iron tools were not used in ancient Peru) and hammers made of harder rocks. The rocks were smoothed by abrasion with sand.[104]​.

• - Almost all the buildings are rectangular in plan. There are one, two and even eight doors, normally on only one of the long sides of the rectangle. There are few buildings with a curved and circular plan.

• - Constructions called huayranas are common. These have only three walls. In these cases, in the space of the "missing wall" a stone colonnade sometimes appears to support a wooden beam that served as support for the roof. There are also double huayranas, two huayranas joined by a party wall, which are called masmas.

• - The constructions usually follow the scheme of the kanchas"); that is, four rectangular constructions arranged around a central patio joined by an axis of transversal symmetry.[105]​ All the doors open onto this patio.

The rigging of the stone walls was basically of two types.

• - Made of ordinary stone joined with clay mortar and other substances. There is evidence that these constructions, which are the majority in Machu Picchu, were plastered with a layer of clay and painted (in yellow and red at least),[106]​[107]​ although the early disintegration of the roofs made them vulnerable to the permanent rain in the area and therefore they have not been preserved.

• - Finely carved stone in elite constructions. They are granite blocks, without plastering and with perfect carvings in the shape of rectangular (parallelepipeds, like bricks) or polygonal prisms. Their exterior faces could be padded, that is, protuberant, or smooth. In these cases the union of the blocks seems perfect and has led to the assumption that it does not have any type of mortar "Mortar (construction)"); but in fact it does have it: it is a thin layer of binding material that is between stone and stone, although it is invisible on the outside.[108]​ The effort of these creations in a society without iron tools (they only knew bronze, much softer) is notable.

No original roof has been preserved, but there is consensus that most of the buildings had a gable or hipped roof; There was even a conical roof over the "tower", and it was made up of a framework of alder trunks (Alnus acuminata)[109]​ tied and covered by layers of ichu (Stipa ichu). The fragility of this type of straw and the copiousness of the rains in the region made it necessary for these roofs to have large inclinations of up to 63º[110] Thus, the height of the roofs many times doubled the height of the rest of the building.

• - As is classic in Inca architecture, most of the doorways, windows and niches (called false windows, niches or cupboards) have a trapezoidal shape, wider at the base than at the lintel. Lintels could be made of wood or stone (often made of a single large block). The doors of the most important rooms had double jambs and in some cases included an internal closing mechanism.

• - The interior walls of many of the buildings have trapezoidal niches, next to the windows. Cylindrical or rectangular blocks often protrude from the walls like large coat racks, arranged symmetrically with the niches and windows, when they exist.

Machu Picchu, as an integral part of a region of great economic movement in the times of Pachacutec, was integrated into the network of Inca roads of the Empire. Using these routes you can, until today, access other nearby Inca complexes that are of great interest. To the north, through the forks of the Huayna Picchu road you can reach the so-called Temple of the Moon or the top of the mountain where there are Inca constructions. To the west is the road that leads to Intipata") and passes through the famous drawbridge. Another road, along which Agustín Lizárraga ascended, leads to the river and San Miguel.

To the south, however, is the best-known and main route of all, which is the most popular hiking route in Peru. The Inca trail to Machu Picchu is a three- to four-day route that crosses what, at the end of the century, was the main access route to Machu Picchu, which began in the Llactapata complex and passed through the ceremonial centers of Sayacmarca, Phuyupatamarca) and Huiñay Huayna, to end at the tambo of Intipunku, the "gateway" at the entrance to the Machu Picchu domain and the end point of the tour.

• - Hiram Bingham se llevó 5000 piezas arqueológicas a la Universidad de Yale, producto de las excavaciones en Machu Picchu. Durante mucho tiempo fueron reclamadas por el gobierno peruano hasta que en el 2007 se llegó a un acuerdo. Se esperaba su devolución a finales del 2009,[111]​ sin embargo, esta no se dio. La Universidad de Yale confirmó la devolución de las piezas en el 2011, al conmemorarse el centenario del redescubrimiento de Machu Picchu por Bingham.

• - En mayo de 2005, la antigua ciudad jordana de Petra se «hermana» con la de Machu Picchu.[112]​.

• - Gloria Estefan grabó en esta llacta incaica el videoclip de su canción "Hoy" compuesta por el peruano Gian Marco.[113]​.

• - El grupo musical chileno Los Jaivas inmortaliza el poema de Pablo Neruda Alturas de Machu Picchu "Alturas de Machu Picchu (poema)") filmando un clip de las canciones del álbum homónimo "Alturas de Machu Picchu (álbum)") en Machu Picchu en el año 1980.[114]​ Este disco es considerado uno de los mejores álbumes de la música chilena.

• - En un cómic de Supermán, aparece Machu Picchu, en una escena donde Supermán se encuentra reflexionando, luego se inicia una batalla, donde una de las paredes queda destruida.[115]​.

• - Es común que se divulgue entre los turistas que «si se mira de costado se puede apreciar la cara de un hombre» (muchas veces referido como un inca).

• - Machu Picchu le da su nombre a la base peruana de investigación científica ubicada en la isla Rey Jorge, en la Antártida.

• - En 1971, Werner Herzog rueda en Machu Picchu la espectacular escena de arranque de su largometraje Aguirre, la cólera de Dios.

• - En el verano del 2009 se filmó en la ciudadela alguna de las secuencias míticas del documental Quantum Men, dirigida por Carlos Serrano Azcona, protagonizada por Cristóbal Jodorowsky.

• - En Top Gear (videojuego) "Top Gear (videojuego)") y Top Gear 2 de la consola SNES, uno de los circuitos es Machu Picchu en el Nivel "Nivel (videojuegos)") South America (Sudamérica).

New wonder of the world

On July 7, 2007, Machu Picchu was chosen as one of the new seven wonders of the modern world, a private initiative of the New Open World Corporation (NOWC), created by the Swiss Bernard Weber"), not needing the endorsement of any institution or government to continue with its electoral purposes and allow selecting the wonders classified by the vote of more than one hundred million voters.[116]​[117]​[118]​[119]​ This vote was supported by the government of Alan García Pérez, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Tourism sector; this dissemination had its fruits in a great participation of the Peruvian people as a whole and also in the international arena.[120] When the results were known, President Alan García declared by supreme decree, July 7 as "Day of the Historical Sanctuary of Machu Picchu", to remember the importance of the sanctuary for the world, recognize the participation of the Peruvian people in the vote and promote the tourism.[121]​.

The New Seven Wonders of the Modern World were chosen by popular vote based on aesthetic, economic, tourist and recreational criteria rather than for their historical importance or artistic merit, which is why they do not have the support of institutions such as UNESCO.[122]​ However, the distinction has a great echo, which results in an important additional claim for attracting tourism. In fact, Machu Picchu is today the main tourist destination in Peru with 600,000 visitors/year (according to MINCETUR) and one of the most desired by travelers from all over the world.

In 2023, the plaque and parchment that recognizes it were missing.[123]​.

• - The Paramount Pictures film Secret of the Incas (1955), with Charlton Heston and Yma Súmac, was filmed on location in Cusco and Machu Picchu, the first time a major Hollywood studio filmed on location. Five hundred indigenous people were hired as extras in the film.

• - The opening sequence of the film Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) was filmed in the Machu Picchu area and on the stone steps of Huayna Picchu.

• - Machu Picchu was featured in the film Motorcycle Diaries "Motorcycle Diaries (film)") (2004), a biographical film based on the 1952 youthful travel memoirs of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara.

• - NOVA's television documentary Ghosts of Machu Picchu presents an elaborate documentary about the mysteries of Machu Picchu.

• - Contemporary multimedia artist Kimsooja used Macchu Picchu as the main setting for the first episode of her film series Thread Routes"), filmed in 2010.

• - In 2019, the movie Godzilla: King of the Monsters mentions the citadel of Machu Picchu, as one of the locations where the Titan Quetzalcóatl remains hidden.

• - In its seventh release, "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts"[124]​ (2023) took the Autobots to Machupicchu and more sacred places in Cusco.

Theater

• - "The dream of Machupikchu", by Millán Picouto"), third tragedy, in one act and in verse, of the "Inca Trilogy", included in the volume of his complete works El macrocosmos, Ediciones Linteo, 2021. ISBN 978-84-123801-0-1.

The song "Kilimanjaro", from the South Indian film Tamil Enthiran (2010), was filmed in Machu Picchu. Sanction for the shoot was given only after direct intervention by the Indian government.

• - Wikimedia Commons hosts a multimedia gallery about Machu Picchu.

• - Wikiviajes hosts travel guides to or about Machu Picchu.

• - Dispute with Yale University, March 1, 2006.

• - Declaration of the historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

• - Official website of Machu Picchu Archived November 19, 2019 at the Wayback Machine.

• - PromPerú website.