What was machu picchu

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New password. Confirm password. Attraction Machu Picchu. Home Attractions Machu Picchu. History of Machu Picchu Located in the heart of the Peruvian Andes, the sacred Inca citadel built around and discovered in , still hides enigmas and mysteries about its real purpose, which continue to be hidden to this day and which arouse the interest of both visitors and archaeologists from all over the world. Places of Interest in Machu Picchu During the tour of the sanctuary, one witnesses the most fascinating and incredible attractions.

The Sacred Rock Huge monolith whose dimensions border on three meters in height on a base of seven and is one of the most mystical symbols found in this place. The Temple of the Sun Sacred enclosure that served for the adoration and worship of the Sun god.

The Temple of Condor A place that houses a large rock in the shape of this Andean bird: a symbol of power and fertility, and which is part of the Inca trilogy along with the puma and the snake. Intihuatana The best-known monolithic sculpture in Machu Picchu and the most impressive due to its purpose. Huayna Picchu Due to its great height of meters, this mountain served as a surveillance center for Machu Picchu. Flora and fauna Not everything is history and culture in this sanctuary.

Map Terrain. Satellite Labels. Fashioned by men without mortar, the stones fit so tightly together that not even a knife's blade could fit between them.

He wondered: Why? By whom? For what? Certainly, what he saw was awe-invoking. Contemporary Peruvian expert Luis Lumbreras, the former director of Peru's National Institute of Culture, describes "a citadel made up of palaces and temples, dwellings and storehouses," a site fulfilling ceremonial religious functions. Machu Picchu is formed of buildings, plazas, and platforms connected by narrow lanes or paths.

One sector is cordoned off to itself by walls, ditches, and, perhaps, a moat—built, writes Lumbreras, "not as part of a military fortification [but] rather as a form of restricted ceremonial isolation. Bingham's discovery was published in the April issue of National Geographic magazine, bringing the mountaintop citadel to the world's attention. Bingham believed he had found Vilcabamba, the so-called Lost City of the Inca where the last of the independent Inca rulers waged a years-long battle against Spanish conquistadors.

Bingham argued for and justified his conclusions for almost 50 years after his discovery, and his explanations were widely accepted. In , adventurer Gene Savoy identified ruins and proved that Espiritu Pampa in the Vilcabamba region of Peru, west of Machu Picchu was the lost city that Bingham had originally sought. Ironically, Bingham had actually discovered these ruins at Espiritu Pampa during his trek. He uncovered a few Inca-carved stone walls and bridges but dismissed the ruins and ultimately focused on Machu Picchu.

Savoy uncovered much of the rest. So what then was this city that Bingham had revealed? There were no accounts of Machu Picchu in any of the much-studied chronicles of the Spanish invasion and occupation, so it was clear European invaders had never discovered it.

There was nothing to document that it even existed at all, let alone its purpose. Bingham theorized that Machu Picchu had served as a convent of sorts where chosen women from the Inca realm were trained to serve the Inca leader and his coterie. He found more than a hundred skeletons at the site and believed that roughly 75 percent of the skeletons were female, but modern studies have shown a more reasonable fifty-fifty split between male and female bones.

Bingham also believed that Machu Picchu was the mythical Tampu-tocco, the birthplace of the Inca forefathers. Modern research has continued to modify, correct, and mold the legend of Machu Picchu. Burger has suggested it was built for elites wanting to escape the noise and congestion of the city. One thing is certain, says Bauer, archaeological evidence makes it clear that the Inca weren't the only people to live at Machu Picchu.

The evidence shows, for instance, varying kinds of head modeling, a practice associated with peoples from coastal regions as well as in some areas of the highlands.

Additionally, ceramics crafted by a variety of peoples, even some from as far as Lake Titicaca, have been found at the site. As for farming, Machu Picchu's residents likely made use of the grand terraces surrounding it. In the summer of the American archaeologist Hiram Bingham arrived in Peru with a small team of explorers hoping to find Vilcabamba, the last Inca stronghold to fall to the Spanish.

Traveling on foot and by mule, Bingham and his team made their way from Cuzco into the Urubamba Valley, where a local farmer told them of some ruins located at the top of a nearby mountain. Led by an year-old boy, Bingham got his first glimpse of the intricate network of stone terraces marking the entrance to Machu Picchu.

He also excavated artifacts from Machu Picchu and took them to Yale University for further inspection, igniting a custody dispute that lasted nearly years. It was not until the Peruvian government filed a lawsuit and lobbied President Barack Obama for the return of the items that Yale agreed to complete their repatriation. Although he is credited with making Machu Picchu known to the world—indeed, the highway tour buses use to reach it bears his name—it is not certain that Bingham was the first outsider to visit it.

There is evidence that missionaries and other explorers reached the site during the 19th and early 20th centuries but were simply less vocal about what they uncovered there.

Its central buildings are prime examples of a masonry technique mastered by the Incas in which stones were cut to fit together without mortar.

Archaeologists have identified several distinct sectors that together comprise the city, including a farming zone, a residential neighborhood, a royal district and a sacred area. Increased tourism, the development of nearby towns and environmental degradation continue to take their toll on the site, which is also home to several endangered species. As a result, the Peruvian government has taken steps to protect the ruins and prevent erosion of the mountainside in recent years.

But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. The Nazca Lines are a collection of giant geoglyphs—designs or motifs etched into the ground—located in the Peruvian coastal plain about miles kilometers south of Lima, Peru.