Macchu Picchu

MACCHU PICCHU
The City at the Roof of the World

"Macchu Picchu balances cleverly, caught in a dance between earth and sky" - Katy Koontz.

Chapter Five: Sacsayhuaman

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For information on the origin of these monuments, go to the Current Theories section. Otherwise, continue on to Sacsayhuaman.

Figure 1: Macchu Picchu, with the summit Huanya Picchu in the rear.

Macchu Picchu (also spelt Machu Picchu) was mostly forgotten by the Incas even before the Spanish came in the 1500's. The whole archaeological complex covers approximately 5 square kms. It is a city located high in the Andes Mountains in modern Peru. It lies 120 kilometres northwest of Cuzco at the top of a ridge, hiding it from the Urabamba gorge below. The ridge is between a block of highland and the massive protrusion Huanya Picchu, around which the Urubamba River takes a sharp bend. The surrounding area is covered in dense bush, covering Pre-Colombian cultivation terraces. The city was discovered in 1911 by the American Yale professor Hiram Bingham.

The city has an altitude of 2,400 metres, and is high above the Urubamba River canyon cloud forest. Most of the structures are built of granite blocks that fit together perfectly without mortar, even though none of the blocks are the same size, and have many faces; some have as many as 30(!)corners. The joints are so tight that even the thinnest of knife blades cannot be forced between the stones.

Figure 2: Macchu Picchu, with the massive protrusion Huanya Picchu in the background.

Existing stone formations were used in the construction of structures, sculptures are carved into the rock, water flows through cisterns and stone channels, and temples hang on steep precipices.

The houses had steep thatched roofs and trapezoidal doors; windows were unusual. Some of the houses were two stories tall, though no stairs or ramps are evident. The houses, in groups of up to ten gathered around a communal courtyard, or aligned on narrow terraces, were connected by narrow alleys. At the centre were large open squares; livestock enclosures and terraces for growing maize stretched around the edge of the city. They used advanced terracing and irrigation methods to reduce erosion and increase the area available for cultivation.

Figure 3: Temple of Three Windows viewed from the central plaza area. The cyclopean blocks in the lower wall are a terrace. The floor in the room is a few feet below the windows. Image from jqjacobs.net.

One of the most important things found at Macchu Picchu is the Intihuatana, which is a column of stone rising from a block of stone the size of a grand piano. Intihuatana literally means "for tying the sun", although it is usually translated as "hitching post of the sun". According to orthodoxy, as the winter solstice approached, when the sun seemed to disappear more each day, a priest would hold a ceremony to tie the sun to the stone to prevent the sun from disappearing altogether.

Figure 4: View from inside the Temple of Three Windows, looking down towards the central plaza area. Image from jqjacobs.net.

Figure 5: The Intihuatana, or Hitching Post of the Sun. Image from jqjacobs.net.

What orthodoxy fail to integrate into their theories is that few people outside the Inca’s closest retainers were actually aware of Macchu Picchu’s existence.

The Temple of Three Windows and the adjoining house, shown in figure 6, have three stone walls each and open onto a common courtyard. These two buildings and the Torreon present some of the finest Incan masonry. Cyclopean megaliths form the base of the walls on this house, adjoining the Temple of the Three Windows. The end wall in figure 7 faces towards the plaza area.

Figure 6: An example of the cyclopean blocks used in the construction of the house adjoining the Temple of Three Windows. Image from jqjacobs.net.

Figure 7: The end wall of the Temple of Three Windows, showing the huge blocks of granite used in construction. The plaza is on the left. Images from jqjacobs.net.

The Torreon is perched on an immense rock and above a small cave. Local folklore claims the cave is the birthplace of the Inca. The windows were designed so that the sun shone directly through the one window during the winter and summer solstices. The Torreon walls continue the angle and shape of the rock below it, as seen in figure 8.

Figure 8: The Torreon utilises the granite base it is built into as part of the walls. Image from jqjacobs.net.

The engima associated with this precarious place is the effort gone into building it. High up in the mountains, but using massive granite blocks from far below, from across the river that winds its way around the base of the peaks upon which it is built. Why? What was stoppping them from using smaller, more manageable blocks? Was it easier for them to use larger blocks? Surely not.

The allure of this magnificent place is not only the enigmatic building techniques, but the spirituality of the area. Perched atop these sheer mountain facings, one can feel completely attuned with the surroundings. It can touch a persons soul in a way not many places on Earth can. Of the few places that one CAN find such spirituality, most will be found among these pages. And they are all ancient beyond reckoning. All built by a civilisation as yet unidentified.

Figure 9: View from atop the Torreon. This view is looking upstream into the Urubamba Canyon, in the direction of sunrise. Image from jqjacobs.net.