Machu Picchu and Cuzco

Although the Spanish did their best to stamp out Inca culture, they could not erase all the magnificent buildings left behind. Cuzco became the acting capital during Spanish occupation, yet Machu Picchu was mysteriously abandoned, not to be discovered by archaeologists until the early 20th century. Even though the “Inca Trail” had linked Cuzco with Machu Picchu, the Spaniards inexplicably never discovered this mountain-top community. When the inhabitants left, the jungle swallowed up the trail and all clues of its very existence. It became so forgotten that when Hiram Bingham from the United States first discovered Machu Picchu in 1911, he was convinced it was the lost Inca city of Vilcabamba.

Before the Spanish conquest, Machu Picchu was just another small Inca town. It was home to about 1,000 people, held a royal estate, and was away from the main routes that connected their mighty empire. The town is dramatically laid out on a flat mountaintop, next to sheer cliffs on three sides, in an emerald green valley. Surrounding the town on many levels are terraced plantations for cultivation and subsistence of the community. There was enough space in Machu Picchu for the houses to be arranged around a large central plaza. In the center of the plaza resides the stone known as the Intihuatana, dedicated to the sun-god Inti. The stone was used as a sundial and may have served as a device to create alignments with the sun’s rays during the solstice.

The ruins of Machu Picchu — staircases, terraces, temples, palaces, towers and the famous sundial — are some of the best-preserved artifacts of ancient Inca culture. Similar to the lost city of Pompeii in Italy, Machu Picchu is an ancient center almost wholly intact. Also like Pompeii, Machu Picchu is centered around a main plaza and has a massive mountain looming nearby. The mountain overlooking the site, Huayna Picchu (on which there are some ruins), has steps to the top for an amazing overview of the whole complex. The climb to the top takes an hour and should not be attempted on rainy days, or by those afraid of heights.


Cuzco was the center of the world to the ancient Inca. Like Rome in Europe, all roads in western South America led to the capital. Although the Spaniards destroyed most of ancient Cuzco, many fine examples of Inca masonry still remain. The master stone workers of ancient Peru constructed walls, roads and buildings with huge trapezoidal blocks. This characteristic style of architecture is prevalent in both Cuzco and Machu Picchu. In Cuzco, most of the best Inca walls and ruins are right in the middle of the old part of the city. Don’t miss the walls of the House of the Women, directly across from the Palace of the Serpents. The temples of the Stars and of the Moon are both relatively intact. Some of the most famous cut stones, including the “stone of twelve angles,” are refashioned in Cuzco’s many cathedrals. Unfortunately, Cuzco’s most sacred Inca building, called the Temple of the Sun (Coricancha), was almost entirely dismantled by the conquistadors. It contained fantastic treasures, all looted by the Spaniards, and is rumored to contain subterranean vaults and a tunnel complex extending hundreds of miles north and south underground, possibly as far as Chile and Ecuador.

Said Bingham of Cuzco: “One of the most interesting places in the world is Cuzco, the ancient capital of the Empire of the Incas. In the days of the Spanish conquest of Peru, it was the largest city in (South) America. On a hill back of it is an old fortress, a place of refuge for centuries. The northern wall of that fortress is perhaps the most extraordinary structure built by ancient man in the Western Hemisphere.” Like Hiram Bingham, most visitors agree that the most fascinating
relic of Cuzco is the great wall of Sacsayhuman. This massive wall of “cyclopean”
masonry contains perfectly fitted stones of epic proportions. Hundreds of stones weigh from 100 to 300 tons, and the largest weighs an amazing 440 tons (400,000 kg)! No mortar is used, and no two blocks are alike. Interestingly, the oldest stones remaining are generally the largest and most perfectly cut. The masons of ancient Peru, either Inca or pre-Inca, were some of the finest stoneworkers of all time.


Getting to Machu Picchu and Cuzco
Cuzco, located in a fertile valley high in the Andes, rises 11,444 feet (3,490 m) above sea level and is an hour flight from Lima, the southern capital of the Inca empire. Modern Cuzco is a bustling city with an airport, a train station and many roads leading to the ancient capital, now a modern tourist hub. Machu Picchu, at an elevation of 8,000 feet (2,450 m), has the most spectacular setting of any ruin in the world. Machu Picchu located is in the southwest Andes, about 60 miles (100 km) north of Cuzco. Access to the lost city is by train and then bus from Cuzco. Another way to get to Machu Picchu is the famed Inca Trail. The hike from Quoriwayrachi takes three to five days.