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LOCATION
The Machupicchu archaeological complex is
located in the department of Cusco, in the
Urubamba province and district of Machupicchu.
It is perched on the eastern slopes of the
Vilcanota mountain range, a chain of mountains
curtailed by the Apurimac and Urubamba Rivers.
At latitude 13º7' South and longitude 72035'
West of the Greenwich Meridian, Machupicchu is
located at a height of 2,350 meters above sea
level (main square).
CLIMATE AND
ENVIRONMENT
It is located in a subtropical zone, or
dense wood, the reason why the climate is mild,
warm and damp, with an average year-round
temperature of 130C during the day. One can
perceive two distinct seasons during the year:
the rainy season from November to March, which
is a time of heavy rains. Visitors are advised
to dress accordingly during this season. The dry
season from April to October brings on higher
temperatures.
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FLORA AND
FAUNA
Both are abundant and varied.
Typical plant life in the historic
reserve of Machupicchu includes
pisonayes, q'eofias, alisos, puya palm
trees, ferns and more than 90 species of
orchids.
The fauna in the
reserve includes the spectacled bear,
cock-of-the-rocks or "tunqui", tankas,
wildcats and an impressive variety of
butterflies and insects unique in the
region.
The lie of the land,
the natural surroundings and the
strategic location of Machupicchu lend
this monument a fusion of beauty,
harmony and balance between the work of
the ancient Peruvians and the whims of
nature. |
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HISTORY
One cannot pinpoint the first to populate
these lands, as it was a time of occupation
rather than foundations. Machupicchu was visited
by explorers well before Hiram Bingham, although
with little success. These included Antonio
Raymondi, the Count of Sartiges and Charles
Wiener. Other visits included one in July 1909
by the Santander brothers, whose inscription can
be found carved into the base of the Temple of
the Sun. At the same time, Peruvian
explorers Enrique Palma, Augustin Lizárraga and
Gavino Sánchez arrived at the citadel by the
route of San Miguel.
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The railway line runs
parallel to the river in winding loops
that follow the riverbed. From here one
can seethe typical vegetation of the
upper jungle, which climbs up to the top
of the steep mountain range that forms
the Urubamba Canyon. The train passes
through the Chilca train station from
where one can see the snowcapped peak
called "Veronica". With a height of
5,750 meters above sea level, it is the
highest peak in the Urubamba range. The
train stops at Kilometer 88, where the
Inca Trail begins. |
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The train then
continues on its way, passing through
the station of Pampacahua and the town
of Aguas Calientes, located at Kilometer
110. When the train line comes up
against a wall of imposing granite
mountains, it then plunges into two
tunnels before arriving at the station
of Puente Ruinas. From here, minibuses
take the travelers up 8 kilometers of
roads up to the Tourist Hotel. The entry
control to the Inca citadel is done near
the hotel. |
GUIDED TOURS
The guided tour of Machupicchu starts on a
path that leads from the bus terminal. The path,
built on purpose for tourism, enters the citadel
in the section that houses a cluster of rooms
near the outer wall. The path continues through
a terrace to gain access to the agricultural
zone before arriving at the urban area.
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ARCHITECTURE
The citadel is divided into two sectors:
the agricultural (terracing) and the
urban, where there are main squares,
temples, palaces, storehouses, workshops,
stairways, cables and water fountains
which run through both sectors, which
measure 20 and 10 hectares respectively.
It is clear that the
architectural design was based on Cusco,
the capital of the Inca empire.
Machupicchu was built according to its
natural surroundings, with its
constructions following the natural
curves and dips and rises in the land.
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The archaeological excavation
that took place after Bingham discovered the
ruins showed the land was previously given
granite foundations with little surrounding soil.
The agricultural and urban
sectors are split by a dry ditch, the result of
a geographic fault line.
The following chapters
describe the most important constructions in
each sector.
THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR
The sector is surrounded by a
series of terraces of different types and sizes
which had two main functions: to grow crops and
halt the erosion caused by the rains. The most
eye-catching terraces lie at the entrance to the
citadel. They begin at the cluster of rooms
located at the entrance and climb up to the top
of the mountain until they stop at a large
rectangular room.It is clear that the upper
terraces at the entrance were meant for
agricultural purposes as they have raised steps
and are much wider. The lower terraces,
meanwhile, have different shapes because they
were built as foundations.
There are no canals as they
were not necessary, as the constant rains and
ever-present humidity allowed the plants to grow
without irrigation. The only water channel that
flows through the urban sector crosses through
the central terrace.
In the agricultural sector
there are five rooms that look like Chincheros
and Ollantaytambo storerooms.
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THE
CONTROL GATE
This is made up of a
three-walled room with a view with
several windows, which can be found in
front of the main gateway. There is a go
panorama from here of the agricultural
and urban sectors and the surrounding
landscape. It is a good idea to take
photos from this angle as it gives the
visitor a good view of the complex.
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In every Inca city, the dead
were buried on the outskirts of the town, which
is where in this case Cusco archaeologists found
human remains. In the upper part, they also
found sculpted stones that belong to the area,
which indicated the Incas used the stones to
make offerings to their gods. On this same piece
of ground lies a granite boulder sculpted with
steps. But the most striking feature is that it
is pierced with a ring, the purpose of which is
unknown. This ritual boulder is very similar to
that of the ñusta-hispana in the Vilcabamba I
ruins. In the upper part one can see a body-shaped
spot as if people had been placed on their backs.
THE URBAN SECTOR
While the agricultural sector
is cut short by a dry ditch, one can see a long
stairway that leads to the front gate.
This sector houses the most important
constructions of any Inca city, where one can
appreciate the talent, effort and quality of the
pre-Hispanic builders, as the constructions are
entirely made of granite, a very hard rock that
is different from that used in Cusco.
The city is U-shaped. In the
northern section there is the great religious
sector containing the temples, to the South
there are the houses and workshops on platform
terraces that Bingham called the Military Group.
The main buildings in the Urban Sector are the
following:
THE TEMPLE OF THE SUN
This construction is shaped
like a semi-circle and built on solid rock, an
existing granite block shaped to blend with the
natural curves, with a diameter of 10.50 meters.
It is composed of highly polished polyhedrons.
There are two trapezoidal windows in this
building with protruding knobs at every comer,
and on the north side there is a carefully-sculpted
door with bored holes in the doorjamb, very
similar to the Qoricancha temple in Cusco. The
Spanish historians relate there were once gold
and precious jewels encrusted in the door. To
the West of the temple there is a rectangular
patio with nine ceremonial doorways alternating
with prism-shaped studs. THE INTIWATANA
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This stone is located
on a hill made up of several terraces.
The visitor can gain access to the stone
via 78 well-crafted steps. At the end of
the staircase one enters an open patio
with walls equally well-sculpted, and
where one can see an upper platform
where there is a granite rock sculpted
into three steps. In the central part
one can see a rectangular prism that is
36cm high and which is pointing from
North-West to South-East. |
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Its four corners are
directed to the four cardinal points.
The Intiwatana had specific functions:
it measured time (the solstice and the
equinox) by using sunlight and shadow,
and also served as an altar. In Quechua,
"Inti" means "sun" and "Wata" means "year",
thereby giving us the meaning of a solar
year observatory. |
THE GROUP OF THE SACRED ROCK
The sacred rock, located in a
four-sided spot flanked by two three-sided rooms,
features a monolithic rock sculpture which is
3cm high and 7m wide at its base. The pedestal,
which is approximately 30cm high, resembles a
feline. From another angle, It looks like the
profile of a mountain near Machupicchu. It is
possible that this cluster of constructions,
together with two "Wayranas", or three-sided
rooms, were used for rituals.
THE TEMPLE OF THREE WINDOWS
It is located West of the
main square, has a large rectangular floor. Its
name comes from the fact its main face has three
windows and two blind bays. Together with the
main temple, this is the most impressive
architecture in all of Machupicchu. The enormous
polyhedrons have been carved and joined with
millimetric precision.
In front of the Wayrana-style
construction, on the large doorjamb next to the
central column that holds up the roof, there is
a sculpted lithograph with carefully polished
molds and flat parts.
MAIN TEMPLE
The temple is located North
of the Sacred Square, very near the Temple of
Three Windows. It is built of three walls and is
11m long and 8m wide.
THE DOORS
Doors are a common sight in
Machupicchu and especially in this sector. They
vary in texture, size and architectural style
that set them apart from each other, although
all have the same trapezoid shape. Some only
have one doorjamb and lintel, and some have two.
Some doors are simple and others have different
security mechanisms such as stone rings, central
trunks and other mechanisms which served to tie
together beams to make the doors more secure.
THE FOUNTAINS
To the South of the complex,
between the Temple of the Sun and the Royal
Palace, the area houses a series of water
fountains, the only sources of the vital element
for the residents of Machupicchu. The first
three water fountains or "PaqchaS7 in Quechua,
have been extremely well sculpted. The
architectural structures in this area are
basically sculpted rock to which are added other
decorations such as the spillway and the side
walls. This beautiful finish is due to the
harmony existing between the Temple of the Sun
and the Royal Palace. These fountains were fed
by underground water and carried via a canal to
be used for irrigation of crops.
THE TOMB
The enormous leaning block of stone
that holds up the Temple of the Sun has a large
crack in its bottom part, which has been
exceptionally skillfully decorated and furnished
to be later used as a tomb.
It was also a site of worship
and offerings to the mummified bodies of the
main authorities. In the doorway it shows a
carving portraying the symbol of the goddess
Mother Earth. In its interior there are niches,
monolithic pillars and other accessories used
for religious means and to attend the mummies.
THE SQUARES
There are four main squares
at different levels, but share the
characteristic of being rectangular in the
classic Inca style, interconnected by sunken
stairways in the parameters of the terraces. The
main square is the largest, which just like the
main squares in all Inca cities, had religious
and social functions.
The fourth open area is a
square flanked by terraces with their respective
access ways, similar to the 1,000 B.C. Chavin
culture.
On July 14, 1911, Hiram
Bingham arrived together with a team of Yale
University specialists in topography,
biographies, geology, engineering and osteology,
led by local inhabitant Melchor Arteaga. They
asked him about the city, and he told them it
was located on top of an old peak ("Machupicchu"
in Quechua).
Later, in 1914 Hiram Bingham
returned to Machupicchu with economic and
logistic backing from Yale University and the
U.S. Geographic Society with the specialists
mentioned above, whose report was published and
made available around the world with the title "The
Lost City of the Incas".
In the original map, Bingham
carved Machupicchu into sectors according to the
four cardinal points. Some names have remained
the same, but 76 years after the discovery of
Machupicchu, scientific studies carried out by
archaeologists from the archaeological
foundation of the National Cultural Institute as
well as delegations of foreign scientists, have
provided valuable conclusions about the use and
functions of the buildings. These were based on
archaeological excavations and the architectonic
relations between the buildings with similar
construction across the vast Inca empire.
The periods of occupation
have been broken down into the following, based
on historical accounts, construction style and
ceramics:
1. Initial (up to 1,300 A.D.)
2. Classic (up to 1,400 A.D.)
3. Imperial (up to 1533 A.D.)
4. Contact or Transition (1533 to 1572)
DESCRIPTION OF THE ROUTE TO MACHUPICCHU
There are 112krn of railway
line between the city of Cusco and the station
of Puente Ruinas or Machupicchu. The trip starts
in the station of San Pedro in Cusco, zig-zagging
up the Picchu mountain until it reaches the
highest point, a spot called "El Arco" (the arch),
in the northwest part of the city.
- The route then descends to
the villages of Poroy, Cachimayo and lzcuchaca
until it reaches the Anta plains, an extensive
cattle area. It climbs down the gully of
Pomatales before descending to the Sacred Valley
of the Incas, arriving at the station of Pachar.
The route then crosses the Urubamba River to the
right bank and arrives at the station of
Ollantaytambo. For those who arrived here by the
asphalt road of the Sacred Valley, one can board
the train to continue to Machupicchu.
HOT SPRINGS:
At a distance of 800m East of
the town of Aguas Calientes, there are
underground hot sulfur springs which bubble up
from the rocky ground at varying temperatures.
The especially-built pools at
this resort are the basis of its use as hot
mineral baths. The average temperature of the
water runs from 38ºc to 46ºc. There are also
changing rooms, bathrooms and a small snack bar.
RAIL TRANSPORT
Tourist Train, It only
operates in the high season, leaving Cusco in
the morning, stopping at the most important
stations (Ollantaytambo, Km.88 or Ooriwayrachina)
until it arrives at the station of Puente
Ruinas. The trip takes four hours and returns in
the evening.
Autovagon, This tourist service leaves
Cusco in the morning and takes three hours. The
trip from The Sacred Valley of the Incas
(Urubamba to Ollantaytambo) takes 1,1/2 hours.
It returns in the evening.
It is recommended to check
all timetables in train stations and travel
agencies, as they are modified according to the
season. |
