When is the best time to go? Machu Picchu. Lost City of the Incas.
Ancient city of Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu - city amazing story And unsolved mysteries, included in the list of 7 new wonders of the world. We invite you to find out why he was included in this list.The Spanish conquistadors, who captured the territory of modern Peru in the 16th century, were never able to discover this fortress, in which the Incas took refuge, not wanting to submit to foreign domination. For more than three hundred years it was, in the full sense of the word, a “lost city” - no one even suspected its existence. It is believed that the last inhabitants Machu Picchu died by the beginning of the 17th century.
Machu Picchu is high in the clouds. Translated from Quechua, "Machu Picchu" means " old mountain" When viewed from above, you can see that Machu Picchu is located on an almost flat mountain plateau. The peaks of neighboring mountains rise around it.
For a long time, only legends circulated about the existence of the “lost city of the Incas.” No one knew whether it really existed. There was not a single mention of it in the Spanish chronicles. The Incas did not leave written evidence either. That the city really exists , became known only at the beginning of the 20th century.
On July 24, 1911, the American archaeologist Hiram Bingham, who devoted several years to searching for the “lost city of the Incas,” came across a snake-infested city, covered with dense thickets. ancient city on the top of the mountain. Bingham climbed to the top of the mountain, accompanied by a Peruvian porter - guide and translator.
Legend has it that here, on the top of the mountain, lived two Indian families guarding the “lost city.” One of the families had a child. Bingham gave the Indian boy a one-sol coin, and he showed the professor the way to the ancient ruins. So in just one sol (about 30 American cents) a lost city was revealed to humanity, which saw the rise and fall of the Inca civilization.
Despite the discovery of Bingame, Machu Picchu remained inaccessible for almost 30 years. Until an archaeological expedition working here discovered the Inca Road, laid through the valley to the citadel.
The city is located on top mountain range at an altitude of 2057 meters above the valley of the Urubamba River in the territory of modern Peru. Why did the Incas need to build a city at such a height and so far from the center of the state? The number of inhabitants, or even its real name, is still unknown.
Due to its modest size, Machu Picchu cannot claim to be a large city - it has no more than 200 buildings. These are mainly temples, residences, warehouses and other premises for public needs. For the most part they are made of well-processed stone, slabs tightly fitted to each other. It is believed that up to 1,200 people lived in and around it, who worshiped the sun god Inti there and cultivated crops on the terraces.
Machu Picchu has a very clear structure. In the southeast one can discern a complex of palace buildings. The stones from which they are made are processed so carefully that we can say with confidence: these are the dwellings of nobles. The fate of the inhabitants of this city remains unknown. There is not a single mention of Machu Picchu in Spanish chronicles. The Incas also did not leave any written evidence.
It is believed that the Incas built their cities in the shape of animals. They say that from a bird's eye view the city of Cusco resembles a puma. And Machu Picchu is built in the shape of a condor... One can only guess who could see these cities from above...
During the times of the Incas, only a select few were allowed into the fortress of Machu Picchu. The highest nobility, priests, artisans and servants lived here. But the main thing is mamakunas - chosen virgins who dedicated their lives to serving the Sun God/
The fate of the inhabitants of the fortress Machu Picchu remains unknown to this day. Excavations brought new mysteries to the already mysterious city. 173 human skeletons were discovered here, 150 of them were female. But no gold objects were found in the burials. The tomb of the high priest, as Bingham called it, contained the remains of a woman with syphilis, a small dog, several ceramic objects, two skewers and woolen clothing.
Five hectares of cultivated land were located around Machu Picchu on traditional Inca narrow terraces on steep mountain slopes. And the terraces and thousands of steps connecting them have been preserved here for centuries. The whole of Machu Picchu is divided into sectors: cemetery, dungeons, residential area and temples.
The Temple of the Three Windows, through whose windows the sun's rays entered the sacred square, probably played a crucial role in the rituals. Three windows reflect the Incas' ideas about the trinity of the world. According to legend, the three founders of the Inca Empire entered the world through these windows.
A little above the temple there is an observatory and Intiwatana - a curiously shaped stone, which apparently was a sundial. Sometimes it is also called the “sun control point”.
Some of the buildings at Machu Picchu were two stories high, with pointed thatched roofs. The stones were fitted to each other with amazing precision.
Special gaps were left between the stones of many buildings in Machu Picchu. Thanks to this, during the frequent earthquakes here, the buildings were much more stable. The walls of the fortress were specially built at an angle - for greater earthquake resistance. This is surprising, especially since during construction the Incas did not use cement or other fastening substances - the stones hold each other due to their own weight.
There is a theory according to which the wealth of the owner can be judged by how well the stones of a building fit together. According to her, Machu Picchu could not have been a place of exile or an Incan prison.
It is also believed that there was no human sacrifice in the Inca Empire. At Machu Picchu, animals were sacrificed to the gods. Mostly - llamas, and three a day: in the morning and afternoon - a white llama, in the evening - a black one.
From the plateau on which Machu Picchu is located, a steep path rushes to the top of the neighboring mountain - Huayna Picchu. At its foot is the Palace of the Moon, and from the top there is a stunning view of the Urubamba River valley.
Machu Picchu, especially after receiving the status World Heritage UNESCO, has become a center of mass tourism. The city is visited by 2,000 tourists per day; In order to preserve the monument, UNESCO requires reducing the number of tourists per day to 800. Machu Picchu is located in a remote region. To support tourism, a railway was built to the neighboring city of Aguas Calientes from Cusco via Ollantaytambo, with more than ten trains a day running from Ollantaytambo.
From railway station There is a bus from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu, which covers eight kilometers of steep ascent along a serpentine road. UNESCO opposed the construction cable car to limit the flow of tourists. As a result of the 2004 earthquake, the area railway was badly damaged, but was later restored.
By the way, the Inca trail to Machu Picchu along the Urubamba River through several passes has survived to this day, but if you want to walk along it, it will take at least several days...
Machu Picchu to this day remains evidence of the former power of the Inca Empire. More than 500 years ago, Incan achievements in construction made it possible to lay stone blocks so closely together without mortar that it was impossible to insert a knife into the cracks.
Previously, all buildings had roofs. With them the city would have a completely different look.
The remains of Machu Picchu (or as it is also called “the city among the clouds”) are located on a high mountain ridge 2450 meters high, surrounded on three sides by the turbulent Urubamba River. It is still unknown what purpose all these palaces, squares, temples and residential buildings served. Perhaps it was a military fortress, temple complex or a mountain retreat for rulers. The location is ideal for any purpose.
Translated from the local language, Machu Picchu means “Old Mountain”. Huayna Picchu (Young Mountain) rises nearby; it usually appears in all photos of the ancient city.
The “City in the Sky” itself became known to the whole world only in 1911, when a Peruvian guide led Yale University professor Hiram Bingham to the entrance to the lost complex. Although the indigenous people knew about the existence of Machu Picchu, they did not tell the Spanish invaders. It was thanks to them that the city remained inviolable.
Every piece of knowledge, every step and slab is proof of the unsurpassed skill of the builders of Machu Picchu. Walls, terraces and ramps fit perfectly to the surface of the mountain, like pieces of a puzzle. The city has preserved about 700 terraces that were used for growing food. Each such terrace had an irrigation system, water into which came from containers to collect moisture after rain or condensation.
It is difficult to imagine how much work must be put in to produce such masonry by hand.
All terraces were previously used for growing food.
The achievements and skills of the Incas are even more amazing when you find out what tools they used. When Machu Picchu was created (in the 15-16th century), the Incas did not know iron, steel, or even wheels. This entire huge complex was built by a small group of people, no more than a thousand, and they used primitive tools made of stone.
The name “Machu Picchu” comes from the Quechua language and means “old mountain”. The settlement is also often called a "city among the clouds" or a "city in the sky." Not far from the city is the Huayna Picchu cliff, which means “young mountain”. According to legend, this rock is a guardian frozen in stone. And indeed, from a certain angle, the outlines of Huayna Picchu resemble the profile of an Indian looking into the sky.
The city consists of several hundred buildings and has a clear structure. In the southeastern part there are palace buildings, houses of the nobility and temples. One of the most unusual buildings is the Temple of the Condor, which got its name because of the stone, the outline of which resembles a bird's head with a beak. The stone probably served as a sacrificial altar, since the “beak” is bordered by a groove. There is a hypothesis that the condor was a cult bird among the Incas, personifying the elements of air and freedom. The two small rocks behind the sacrificial stone symbolize wings.
Where is Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu is a world-famous Incan city lost in Peru. To get to it you will first need to fly to Peru by plane to the capital Lima. Then you will need to make a short plane transfer to Cusco. Next, tourists by train will be able to get to settlement Aguas Calientes from the train station called "Poroy" or another station in Sacred Valley. This is the village that is closest to the cherished goal. The next step is to buy a bus ticket to Machu Picchu. In terms of cost, this route is the most expensive.
If tourists want to save money cash, you will need to take a bus from Cusco to Urubamba. There you can change to another bus to Oyantaytambo. In the evening hours, a train departs from the indicated locality to Aguas Calientes. The total travel time exceeds 6 hours.
As a result, the journey will be quite tiring. Moreover, from Aguas Calientes you will need to take a bus to the mountains. But this will take no more than a quarter of an hour, and you will find yourself in the wonderful and mysterious city of the Incas.
If you are not used to getting anywhere by transfer train, you can take the direct Aguas Calientes train. True, the ticket price may be too high for some.
Inca City
Holy City ancient empire Incas Machu Picchu is the pride of modern Peru, one of the main attractions and Latin America. Also known as the "lost city of the Incas" modern world I learned about it only in 1911, thanks to the expedition of the American professor Hiram Bingham.
The ancient architectural complex occupies an area of more than 30 thousand hectares and is rightfully considered a masterpiece of Indian architecture.
The city is located in an amazingly picturesque place - among inaccessible cliffs, at an altitude of more than 2000 meters above the valley of the Urubamba River.
Why the Incas created a city in such an inaccessible place is still unclear. Perhaps the reason is that these lands have not only long been famous for the beauty of nature, but are also considered mystical place having powerful positive energy. Perhaps the tops of the rocks were the best suited for conducting astronomical observations and brought the Indians closer to the Sun, whom they worshiped as the supreme deity.
The Great Sacred Square separated the area of the nobility from the dwellings of ordinary people, shops, workshops and the cemetery located in the Funeral Rock. In the southern sector of the city there were peasant houses with outbuildings and pens for livestock. The Incas built the roofs of their houses from wooden beams connected by vines, and covered them with straw on top.
The main temple of Machu Picchu is located in the western part of the city. Behind it is a raised platform with artificial terraces and a long staircase leading to one of the most mysterious sights in the architectural complex - the Intihuatana stone, also known as the “stone of the Sun”. This is a huge polygonal stone carved from a granite monolith on top of a cliff. It is believed that the stone was used by priests in the ritual of “binding the Sun” - a symbolic action performed annually on the day of the winter solstice.
City designation
Numerous studies by historians have not led them to a consensus regarding the purpose of the city of Machu Picchu. And now there are several hypotheses that have not become axioms.
According to the first theory, the city was the homeland and last stronghold of the Incas during their fight against the conquistadors. But only later it became known that last refuge The city of Espiritu Pampa became a mysterious ancient people.
The temple built for the Solar Maidens was called Machu Picchu for a long time. Scholars have suggested that it was founded for a women's religious order to worship them. Many years ago, the American George Eaton discovered during excavations of the city great amount remains of female skeletons. But the assumption made turned out to be false, and this became clear only in 2000. Then more detailed studies of the bones were carried out. It turned out that the female population in the city did not predominate.
A number of scholars consider this mysterious city to be the residence of a 15th century Inca ruler. We are talking about Emperor Pachacuti. The hypothesis arose at the end of the twentieth century due to a Spanish document, but no one has yet been able to accurately confirm it.
In 1991, the American Reinhard (a famous archaeologist) drew attention to the fact that the city was built on the top of a mountain, at the foot of which the stormy Urubamba River flows. As a result, it was concluded that this city had sacred significance for the Incas. Reinhard suggested that Machu Picchu united Heaven and Earth, was a kind of “sacred beginning” for the ancient people, symbolized eternity, a detail of the mythological landscape. But such thoughts are very extensive and, according to other anthropologists and archaeologists, have nothing to do with the real purpose of Machu Picchu.
And another theory from 2009. The Italian astrophysicist expressed his opinion that the city was a common place of pilgrimage, and this was its main purpose.
To date, none of the above hypotheses has any real basis or any confirmation of data. Therefore the purpose mysterious city of the ancient Incas remains unclear.
Where did the residents go?
It is also not possible to answer this question unambiguously. For too long, people have been trying to unravel the secrets of the beautiful “heavenly” city. It seems that now some thread of reality has been lost forever by numerous researchers and scientists.
Some believe that the inhabitants died from a smallpox epidemic. Others tell of attacks by wild tribes. But this seems incredible, because no traces of their presence were found. There is also no destruction in the city.
Another hypothesis is the desecration of the city, after which the inhabitants hastily left it. It is believed that violence was committed against the priestess of the Sun. The Incas believed that they were not allowed to be in the desecrated territory and left in an unknown direction.
Perhaps the onslaught of the ruthless Spanish conquerors forced the indigenous people to leave the sacred lands, forever losing their high status. But again, it is unknown in which direction the Incas went, and what happened to them after leaving Machu Picchu.
Perhaps another mystery of the mysterious city about the disappeared inhabitants will remain forever unsolved. But scientists do not stop looking for answers.
Disappearance of Inca gold
Thousands of expeditions from all over the world are trying unsuccessfully to find the famous Incan gold. It is believed that the ancient people mistook the conquering conquistadors for gods and gifted them with their unearthly treasures. When the last Inca ruler was executed, the Spaniards hid the gold and took part of it out of the city. But the search continues, and the treasure remains unfound.
There are several interesting versions, each of which has not been confirmed. Some believe that the ingots were found in Germany by the Nazis back in the thirties. Others point to the Vatican, arguing that it is Catholic Church took possession of the treasures.
Still others believe that gold was transported to Poland in some unimaginable way by the last of the Incas. But all these versions turn out to be unreliable, since no one managed to find the amazing treasure. Gold hunters continue to visit the abandoned city of Machu Picchu. Someone believes that the bulk of the gold rests in his lands - it cannot be otherwise. Some scientists even provide historical evidence that the Spaniards took only a small part of the amazing treasures from the territory of the Incas.
It is only worth noting that the city of the ancient Incas has not been fully explored. It is possible that it still conceals unprecedented mysteries that you really want to solve as soon as possible. Thousands of daredevils come here to find answers to the most tricky historical questions that are closely intertwined with modernity.
Conclusion
The heyday of the power of the Inca city was the second half of the 15th century. In the 30s of the 16th century, the city suddenly became empty. It is known for certain that the city was not among the settlements destroyed during the invasion of the Spanish conquistadors, so the reason why holy city depopulated.
There are many different hypotheses. Among possible reasons called a smallpox epidemic or desecration of sacred places. It is most likely that the “city in the sky” lost its significance after the fall of the empire and was therefore abandoned by its inhabitants. Be that as it may, researchers still hope that someday this secret will be revealed.
Photos
The most ancient civilizations of the Incas and Aztecs have sunk into oblivion - the heritage of Indian culture was plundered and destroyed by the Spanish conquistadors. There are only a few monuments left that testify to the greatness and high development of Andean cultures.
One of the most famous ancient settlements of the Andean Indians that have survived to this day is the “” Incas - Machu Picchu (translated from the Quechua language as “Old Peak”). This city is located high in the mountains in Peru.
Modern high tech allowed us to accurately determine the age of Machu Picchu. The city was built between 1450-1470. AD, during the reign of Pachacutec.
In 1911, young American explorer Hiram Bingham, driven by rumors and legends about a lost city, embarks on a journey through the southeastern jungles of Peru. Week after week passed, and no traces of the ancient city were discovered. Hiram thinks he will set off with the group on the way back, but decides to go a little deeper into the jungle, and, having crossed a small mountain stream, he finds himself in front of a high, almost vertical cliff.
Situated on top of a mountain, ancient Machu Picchu is one of the most amazing structures in America. Why it was necessary to build a city in such a remote place from water and inaccessible remains a mystery, a mystery shrouded in clouds, at an altitude of more than 2400 meters!
The road from Machu Picchu to Cusco is a wonderful example of the art of Inca builders. Even during the rainy season the road is in excellent condition. The entire empire was covered by a wide network of communications, approximately 40 thousand km long. Roads in the Inca state were, first of all, of strategic importance -. In addition, they promoted cultural exchange between all regions of the state. Thanks to roads, people learned from each other the arts of ceramics, weaving, metalworking, architecture and construction.
During its heyday, Machu Picchu was home to artisans, priests and nobles. It still remains a secret what happened to the population of the town. During the excavations, 173 human skeletons were found, of which 150 were female. Neither gold nor jewelry was found in any of the city tombs. This is quite strange, considering that only noble representatives of the Inca people settled in the city.
The city itself is divided into sectors (residential area, temple, dungeon, cemetery). Several hectares of plowed land were located on the steep slopes of the mountain. Most of the buildings in Machu Picchu were one-story. The houses are a simple masonry of stones, which are not even held together with cement mortar.
The city itself is a true embodiment of the genius of Indian architects. All buildings are located at different heights and in order to connect them to each other, several hundred stone stairs were laid out.
In the center of the city rises Intihuatan - the Sun. This is the only sanctuary of the supreme god of the Incas that has survived to this day. From the Sacred Square, along a granite slope with terraces, along a long staircase you can with great difficulty reach the top of the rock, there lies a large, carved polygonal stone “intihuatana”, or “the place where the sun is tied”.
Bingham suggested that the Incas symbolically “tied” the sun here so that it would not run away from them during the winter solstice. This elegant stone carved into the rock could also be a solar observatory, where the priests determined best time to begin sowing or harvesting, watching for the disappearance of shadows from the sun during the autumn and spring equinoxes. There are several dwellings for the high priests in the temple area.
Not far from the city there is a structure that archaeologists called “The Place of Shame.” Guards, judges and executioners were housed here. The building was something like a prison. Inside the building there were special hooks to which prisoners were chained.
To build a city in such an inconvenient place for construction required incredible skill. According to modern experts, more than half of the effort spent on construction went into site preparation, drainage and foundation work. Massive retaining walls and stepped terraces have supported the city for more than 500 years, preventing rains and landslides from sweeping it off the rocky cornice. The heirs of Andean cultures to this day consider Machu Picchu a symbol of their connection with great civilization of the past.
Dozens of tourists visit Machu Picchu every day. All of them make such a difficult journey just to see with their own eyes the grandiose structure of the ancient people.
A great civilization, which, of course, was the Inca Empire, could not help but leave behind a great historical legacy in the form of cities - the most striking and complex monuments of the past. Modern civilization at the current stage of development has already learned to analyze the historical heritage of earlier civilizations, although the method of this analysis is controversial everywhere, as soon as it comes to the interpretation of specific facts.
The Incas, as a fruitful and extremely active people, managed over the course of a hundred years to transform their small tribe into a majestic empire, the area of which was hundreds of times greater than the area of the historical residence of the Incas. This became possible mainly due to the Incan elite’s focus on creating a clear management hierarchy in the country, which was extremely well manifested in the arrangement of the infrastructure of the entire conquered Empire.
Three generations of emperors of the Inca dynasty of rulers in a little over a hundred years managed to do what the rulers Ancient Rome created over centuries. And it’s not even that the Romans were forced to resist more cultural civilizations, rather than the Incas, who subjugated to their will in most cases semi-wild tribes and agricultural crops, as well as the remnants of previously powerful civilizations. The point is rather that the Romans acted within the framework of the law they created, on which they relied heavily, as well as on the political struggle, and the cult of the Inca Emperor rested on religious ground, which makes it possible to compare the Incas with Ancient Egypt.
But the Egyptians built cities for an extremely specific purpose, and each time they associated this action with a religious cult. The Romans used the construction of cities as the most fruitful way to expand the conquered territories, understanding that winning the fight against the army of the people is one thing, but pacifying the people and forcing them to live according to the laws of the Empire is quite another. The Incas in this matter are similar to the Romans, realizing that it is simply impossible to conquer the savages and force them to pay tribute by force, but assimilation is just the same as the patches from the pugovkishop company.
A great genius lived in the Inca emperor whose name was Cusi Yupanca. After this young son of the Inca ruler named Viracochi deposed his father, who was unable to resist the invaders who came from outside, Cusi Yupanca proclaimed himself the Great Inca, that is, the Emperor, and took the name Pachacuti, which in the forgotten language of the Inca nobility means “ earth shaker."
It was this man who stood at the origins of the Inca expansion into neighboring tribes, it was he who created and implanted the cult of the imperial personality among the newly conquered subjects, it was he who began the epoch-making construction of cities of the Inca Empire in territories that previously belonged to other civilizations. His construction genius is credited with the creation of the powerful and beautiful city of Cusco - the pearl of the Incan Empire in terms of architecture and urban planning; it was Cusi Yupanca who built the three greatest fortresses of his time, the likes of which were unparalleled in the entire empire before and after the death of the emperor: Pisac, Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu .
In addition to the capital of Cusco and three beautiful castles, Pachacuti, together with his son Tupac Inca, who further expanded the boundaries of the possessions of the Incan Empire, began building smaller cities, called imperial, which were the centers of the conquered lands and in which the administrative centers of the Empire were located. These imperial cities still mostly rest in the unconquered regions of the Andes mountains and the swampy inaccessible lands of the Amazon jungle, awaiting the discovery of modern civilization.
It was also important in the development of the Empire that the Inca Emperors, conquering the cities and capitals of the peoples they conquered, almost never destroyed these very cities, but engaged in their so-called “cultivation,” that is, they made them the centers of their own Empire, placing the administration in them. These cities include the huge and extensive city of Tumbes, which became the starting point in the expansion of the Spanish invaders into the Inca Empire carried out by Francisco Pizarro and his brothers, the city in which the Inca Emperor Atahualpa was captured. No less important in the Empire was the city of Vitkos, which was the extreme point in the mountainous possessions of the Incas, which they conquered from an unknown tribe at the dawn of the rise of the Inca star. Further beyond Vitkos there began a descent to the foot of the mountains and an area that was the wetlands of the impenetrable Amazonian jungle. It was in this land that the first tribes conquered by the Incas lived - the warlike Amazonian peoples of Antis, who never knew what agricultural work was, being engaged exclusively in hunting. The Antis tribes became the last hope of the last Inca Emperors, who tried to hide from the ruthless Spaniards by escaping into the Amazon jungle and building there the last cities of the Empire - the capital of the Incas in exile - the city of Vilcabamba.
Many other cities, which were never identified by researchers and not indicated in the chronographies of the Spanish settlers and conquerors, have not yet appeared to the world and have not found a second wind in modern conditions. And they did not become museum complexes, but to this day rest in the deep thickets of the jungle, known only to a few local residents– shepherds and peasants, who today, like 300-400 years ago, are forced to wander through the rocks and mountain valleys in search of food for their mules and llamas, as well as land for growing crops. Thanks to to the local population modern explorers and adventurers were able to find and present to the world the ancient cities of the Inca Empire, forever associating their names with these majestic cities, which occupy vast territories and are examples of the genius of Inca architects and engineers.