Introduction
Machu Picchu is a settlement built by the Incas in the fifteenth
century. Inca, or Inka, is the name that was given to the
inhabitants of the basin of the Huatanay River, on whose banks
the city of Cuzco was built. Before that time the Incas had
succeeded in forming a kingdom that dominated the middle part
of the Vilcanota River.
Almost a century after its archaeological discovery and thanks
to recent studies of sixteenth century archival documents,
there are good arguments to suppose that the citadel of Machu
Picchu was - like the pyramids of the pharaohs in Egypt or
the tomb of the emperor Chin Shi Huan in China - the luxurious
and well cared for mausoleum of the Inca Pachakuteq, founder
and first emperor of Tawantinsuyu.
No one doubts that it is a sanctuary of superior social
position built in a privileged place seven or eight days'
journey on foot from the city of Cuzco. In Machu Picchu
there are remains of buildings that were covered with gold,
presumably with fantasy gardens, idols and offerings like
those of the temple of Qorikancha in Cuzco.
There are also other temples and palaces still remaining,
all adjacent and carefully constructed crossed by a network
of fine fountains of water carved into the rock, altars,
cosmic observatories and multiple spaces for the cult of
the dead; from them, on many days of the year, can be enjoyed
the spectacle of rainbows which are born and die right in
front of one's eyes. Machu Picchu is located some 112 km
by railroad north of the city of Cuzco, at an altitude of
2360 m above sea level; that is, about 1000 m below Cuzco,
which is at 3408 m altitude.
The place was known as Picchu, Piccho, or Picho during
colonial times and consisted of two parts: Machu ("old")
and Wayna ("young"). Picchu means "hill",
"mountain" or "peak" and therefore the
name is simply descriptive. It could well have been Patallaqta
("town on the heights"), which was the "town"
or the "house" where the mummy of Pachakuteq was
kept. In the citadel of Machu Picchu few people lived -
probably no more than 200 or 300 - and, if what we suspect
is true, all of them were of high rank and were linked to
the lineage of the Inca, that is, they were descendents
of the founder of Tawantinsuyu.
According to traditions collected by the Spanish, Machu
Picchu must have been built under the direction of Pachakuteq.
The sequence of the process of its construction is not known,
but it seems to have the been the work of a single project
tantamount to a sanctuary or "urbanization" where
the spaces, levels and forms were previously established,
even if during the course of its existence entrances were
corrected or chambers added.
Traditional history
The legend tells that that kingdom had been founded in times
immemorial by a hero called Manco Khapaq and his wife Mama
Oqllu, whose origins are mixed up with the apus and tutelary
gods of mythology and are full of magic and sacred events
that speak of the installation of agricultural tasks, crafts,
the founding of cities, and the establishment of order.
Manco Khapaq was succeeded by several sinchis ("lords")
or governors linked to traditional wars with their neighbors
and a progressive growth of power and capacity for conquest.
Finally, when Inca Wiraqocha governed, the neighbors to
the west, the Chancas, intensified their acts of war and
laid siege to Cuzco, until the Incas were liberated by a
new hero from then on called Pachakutec Inca Yupanki ("the
Inca who rules everything and who returns the land").
Thus began the formation of the empire of the Incas and
soon their Yupanqui governors left the local sphere of their
dominions in order to take charge of the political and economic
administration of a territory which they enlarged on the
basis of military conquests and alliances. Their Tampu neighbors
and the inhabitants of Vilcabamba were some of those initially
conquered. It is in those circumstances that Machu Picchu
was built.
History according to archaeology
Archaeology records two phases in the behavior of those
from Cuzco, which have been called Inca Provincial or Killke,
and Imperial Inca. In the first, Provincial, phase, architecture
and the rest of the arts had not been developed beyond the
domestic limits which the local, basically village form
of life maintained. Manufacturing was of simple configuration
and rough looking, with no major differences between an
ordinary vessel and an elegant one. This radically changed
in the Imperial phase, in what was ostensibly the existence
of an elite manufacture and another, popular one. Therefore
the settlements of the Provincial phase, of undifferentiated
village aspect, were displaced by clearly elitist urban
centers with public buildings and luxurious sacred spaces,
roads paved with stones, stations to provide services for
travelers on the routes between towns, storehouses and granaries
for keeping excess goods or those received in tribute, etc.
Machu Picchu obviously belongs to the Imperial phase. The
context in which the citadel was installed is directly associated
with sumptuous conditions born with the formation of the
Inca empire. If this was, in effect, the mausoleum chosen
by Pachakutec to keep his body for eternity, it is a work
certainly equivalent to those constructed by other civilizations
of the world for their sacred heroes. If that is not the
case, then it must be a work designed by a refined artist
to fulfill a function different from any other known settlement
of its time. The Incas built various cities in Tawantinsuyu,
all of them architecturally exquisite, but none of them
with the aesthetic delight which every one of the chambers
and spaces of this sanctuary has.
Description of Machu Picchu
The sanctuary of Machu Picchu is divided into two large
sectors - one the agricultural sector and the other the
urban or the citadel - of which the first surrounds the
second. We could consider the peak Wayna Picchu as a third
sector. The principal road to approach Machu Picchu, which
comes from Cusco through the south (Qosqoñan), crosses
the crest of the mountain and goes to the entrance to the
sanctuary after passing through areas with isolated constructions
- such as what is now called the watchtower - posts for
lookouts or guards, qolqa or granaries and abundant agricultural
terraces. There were also other roads, such as that which
made the river accessible from the sanctuary on the northeast.
At present a road has been constructed for tourist visits,
a road which did not exist before and now runs parallel
to the Qosqoñan.
The sanctuary properly speaking is a citadel made up of
palaces and temples, dwellings and storehouses, but above
all for buildings which clearly fulfill ceremonial religious
functions, the more luxurious and spectacular components
of which are the mausoleums carved in the rock.
The buildings as well as the plazas and the platforms that
constitute the urban sector are connected among themselves
by a system of narrow lanes or paths, mostly in the form
of flights of steps, which cross the terraces which follow
a flat longitudinal axis. The main platform of the urban
sector is an extensive plaza - the main plaza - which in
turn divides the buildings into hanan ("above"
or "upper") and urin ("below" or "lower").
The urban sector was surrounded by impediments to gaining
access to the sanctuary such as a defense wall and the deep
and wide ditch, or dry moat, which surrounded the whole
complex, not as part of a military fortification rather
as a form of restricted ceremonial isolation.
The agricultural sector
The Machu Picchu citadel is surrounded by agricultural terraces,
some showier than others, so that the aggressive and unequal
slope of the mountain is transformed into a stepped surface
which covers the irregularities of the hillsides with completely
flat terraces. As these follow the level curves, their contours
serve, moreover, to redraw with firm lines the profiles
of the mountain. Therefore, the natural surroundings, which
are covered with a dense arboreal layer which is in itself
fascinating, are transformed into a spectacle that harmoniously
combines the irregularity of the unevennesses and the free
distribution of the colors and forms of the forest with
the architecture of the volumes and spaces created by the
human will.
Without a doubt, Pachakutec enjoyed the pleasure of recreating
this landscape which holds his memory for all eternity.
More than a simple agricultural space, the construction
of the farming sector was a work which subordinated the
alimentary function to the demands of aesthetic values.
If to that is added that, along with the maize or coca -
which the Incas surely sowed in those terraces - they also
grew orchids and plants producing other colors and aromas,
the agricultural terraces were much more than just that.
According to sixteenth century documents these lands of
the Urubamba were under the care of persons whose job was
to produce the goods which sustained the cult of the dead
Inca, who were for the most part the mamacunas, that is,
women ascribed to state service functions.
The hanan section
In hanan, which is to the west, are situated the showier
sacred spaces, such as the royal mausoleum, which contains
the Torreon and the crypt; the royal palace; the main temple,
and a pyramidal platform that houses a sculpture known as
Intiwatana ("solar clock"). Near the entrance
of the sanctuary, at the southeast end, there is another
group of buildings and, in addition, a rocky space which
in its time served as a quarry.
The main plaza and the urin section
The urban sector of Machu Picchu is divided into two large
sections; the upper, or hanan, to the west, which contains
the royal mausoleum, the royal palace, the main temple and
the Intiwatana, among other things, and the lower, or urin,
to the east, which contains the Sacred Rock and its adjacent
garden of stones, the palace of the three doors, the eastern
mausoleum, the aqllawasi, the Crypt of the Condor, collcas
and two groups of buildings which seem to have been of a
domestic character. Both sections are built on high pieces
of land which project from a central section, the one which
fulfills the function of main plaza formed by various plazas
distanced from each other. This is actually the only more
or less extensive flat space there is in Machu Picchu.
The terrace which corresponds to the main plaza properly
speaking is located between the hill of the Intiwatana on
the west, the group of the Sacred Rock with its garden of
stones on the north and the houses of the north and the
palace of the three portals on the east. Below and in front
of the group of the Sacred Rock, an extension of the main
plaza forms a series of wide terraces which configure a
landscape resembling an amphitheater that comes to an end
at the bottom in a trapezoidal stage. The houses to the
north and the palace of the three portals sit on terraces
that appear to be stepped gardens over the main plaza.
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