MACHU PICCHU, PERU

MACHU PICCHU, PERU

Published: 09/25/2009 by Michelle Riaz

Machu Picchu is often referred to as the “lost Inca city” and is the most sought-after destination for any visitor to Peru. The Incas started building it around AD 1430, and almost everyone is familiar with the story of how this city alone was kept secret and safe from the conquistadores, or conquering Spaniards, thanks to its amazing location (at 8,100 feet). It remained relatively unknown until 1911, when an American historian named Hiram Bingham, led to Machu Picchu by a local 11-year-old Quechua boy, first brought it to international attention.

Machu Picchu is perhaps the best archaeological site on the entire South American continent, designated as a World Heritage Site as well as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, and is considered to be a sacred place. The Incas were quite possibly the best stone masons in the entire history of this planet, creating a type of architecture known as ashlar which used polished blocks of stone cut with such precision that they fit together tightly without the use of mortar to hold them together. So tightly do these stones fit together that not even a blade of grass can be inserted between them and, because of this, the Incas’ buildings are more earthquake-resistant than those constructed with the use of mortar. This has contributed greatly to the preservation of Machu Picchu, as it is located in a highly seismic area of land. When earthquakes shake the ground, the stones of the Incas’ building are able to move slightly and resettle themselves without the buildings’ walls collapsing.

There are many mysteries and wonders in this ancient city to be explored by anyone willing to make the two- to four-day trek, by foot, from the Urubamba Valley up through part of the Andes mountain range to Machu Picchu. Perhaps one of the most fascinating is the Intihuatana (meaning to ‘tie up the sun’) ritual stone, which was not destroyed by the Spaniards because of their inability to locate Machu Picchu. The Incas believed that this stone could literally ‘hold the sun’ in its place along its yearly path in the sky. At high noon on both the spring and autumnal equinoxes, the sun appears to stand directly above the Intihuatana stone and casts no shadow at all. It is believed that Intihuatana was built as an astronomical clock or calendar.

Explorers have divided the city of Machu Picchu into three large districts – the Sacred District (where most of the archaeological treasures are located such as the Intihuatana, the Temple of the Sun, and the Room of the Three Windows), the Popular District (where the lower class people lived), and the District of the Priests and Nobility (built for the nobility, the wise persons and the princesses). The Monumental Mausoleum is a huge carved statue with a large, vaulted interior and drawings carved from stone, used for rites or sacrifices.

Visitors to this amazing region need to be aware of the possibility of suffering from altitude sickness, particularly if they do not allow sufficient time for their bodies to adjust before attempting strenuous mountain hikes. Machu Picchu is situated right at the threshold altitude which has been identified as being able to cause AMS (acute mountain sickness), namely 8,000 feet. Symptoms of AMS include headache, fatigue, stomach illness, dizziness, and sleep disturbance, and are exacerbated by physical exertion and stress. AMS appears to be the result of the lack of air pressure (not, as might be expected, from the result of lack of oxygen). The actual percentage of oxygen in the air remains fairly constant up to approximately 70,000 feet, but as altitude increases, air pressure (and therefore the number of oxygen molecules) decreases. Consequently, the amount of available oxygen to sustain mental and physical alertness decreases. AMS is not to be confused with CMS (chronic mountain sickness), which usually appears as a result of years of living at high altitudes. Symptoms of CMS may include headache, dizziness, breathlessness, palpitations, sleep disturbance, fatigue, and mental confusion. In addition, visitors need to guard against dehydration, which can occur more readily in high mountainous regions due to the higher rate of water vapor lost from the lungs at higher altitudes.

More people every year visit this awesome site (there were over 400,000 visitors in 2003). Machu Picchu is truly threatened by ongoing commercial and economic forces, and for that reason, there have been major protests against a plan to build a bridge to the site, and there is a no-fly zone above the city. It is easy to understand why many consider this a magical place and want to preserve the beauty to be found in the temples, fields, terraces and baths of this sacred site.