In and Around Machu Picchu

22 June 2012

We hiked the better part of 4 days to get to Machu Picchu...

 but hundreds of people ride the bus up the switchbacks every day.

From below you can not see any of this...

just like you can't see the ruins at the top of Mt. Huayna Picchu in the background, some 1,100 feet above Machu Picchu.

but when you are inside looking up you only see rock...

and when you look down it's all grass.

The peaks of the buildings ...

replicate the surrounding mountain peaks.

In the middle of everything straight...

is one rounded structure

is what they now call the Temple of the Sun Temple, or Torreon, meaning "tower".  The winter soltice sunrise casts a beam of light directly through the window on the right and the summer sltice casts a beam directly through the window on the left.

They say that where the two beams intersect once stood a gold statue of the INTI, or sun god.  The story goes that the statue was taken to the city of Cajamarca in northern Peru to pay ransom for the life of Atahualpa, the Inka chief, who was being held captive by the Spanish conquistador Pizarro.  After the Inkas filled a room once with gold and twice with silver the Spanish killed him anyway.

Underneath the Torreon was some kind of ceremonial room with shelves, steps and alters cut into the rock.

The perfect cut and fit of the stones is mind boggling...

especially for a culture with only bronze tools and rock hammers.

Hiram Bingham, who brought Machu Picchu to the public eye, called this the "most beautiful wall".  True, the stone work was the best in the entire site.

The Temple of Three Windows

The stones in front are part of some unfinished construction.

From the spot in the upper right (man pointing) of the Intiwatana Pyramid the acoustics are perfect and your voice can be heard over the entire city.  A great place for the Inka (chief) to make public speeches.

The trapizoid was the shape of choice throughout the Inka kingdom.