Matts travel blog: November 2008

Friday, November 28, 2008

Machu Picchu: The Lost City of the Incas

i arrived at the site at about 6.15 and without hesitation i climbed the stone stairs which zig zagged up the side of a steep mountain, as i reach the top, the breathtaking view machu picchu emerges in front of me. i climbed up many of the stone stairs and terracces to try and find a the highest point i could . i sat on a rock and took out a sandwich and a bottle of water from my backpack. i still have two hours until the tour guide arrives and the sky tells me that the Inca Sun God "Inti" is going to give us a glorios sunny day. what a place to have breakfast!

Machu Picchu

well here it is, the lost city of the incas.
or perhaps i should say, one of them!
as there is reason to believe there are more cities not yet discovered. in the time of the brutal spanish conquest the last remaining Inca warriors are said to have fled into the jungle where their descendents may even be today . though the spanish had been sending scouts fo follow the inca trails to find the settlements, the incas started to destory these trails towards the end of this era in order to prevent the spanish from finding such places.
this is a possible reason that the spanish never discovered machu pichhu along with the fact that one doesnt exactly expect to find a city on top of a mountain. though it is the most popular inca site its is not the biggest nor the most recently found. new inca ruins are still being found from time to time including one small site at the top of a nearby mountain just 6 months ago. apparently there is enough written information to suggest that there may indeed be other lost cities deep within the jungle.

though already known by the locals in the area, machhu pichhu was made world famous in 1911 by a man named Hiram Bingham who went to peru in search of a lost inca city. he coined the phrase "lost city of the incas" in several books that he wrote. at that time the city was overgrown by trees and difficult to see.
due to certain artifacts fuond on site, some believe that machu picchu was a kind of university city for the inca elite. possibly those who would go on to be the ruling class of the inca society. but much about this city is a complete mystery, we do not even know its real name, the Quechua name macchu pichhu is merely the name of the mountain meaning "old mountain". historians do not know why the city was abandoned, though they have reason to believe that the spanish never found it since there are no records or evidence of this, moreover the place is still intact which is proof enough you might say given the state of the other places that the spanish found. its possible that the incas fled to keep it from being found but with the intention of returning at a later stage, many of the artifacts were left behind which backs this theory up. all of the golden items normally associated with the inca culture were gone however, some presume that the incas took these items with them and some say the site had been looted at some stage prior to 1911.
interestingly from the hundreds of buried skeletons found here experts determined that 3 of them had in fact been shot with guns, this suggests that some spanish may indeed have encountered this place but perhaps the incas had then killed the gunmen which is why the city remained a secret.

there is evidence that these walls had been coated with clay and kinds of dye were used to paint them in varous colors. also many of the smaller terraces were decorated with flowers for estethic purposes only. once upon a time this must have been a very colorful place indeed.

a gold bracelet from inca times was found near this tree in 1995

Some wildlife in Machu Picchu.
apparently bears are spotted around there every other week.

the incas kept llamas and alpacas in machu picchu, now days the job of these ones is to keep the grass short.

coca plant, used by the incas. particularly by the runners who relayed messages right across the inca empire on foot. it is not normally found at this altitude and therefore is smaller than its normal 4 foot approx height, but there is evidence that the incas cultivated it.

lizards keeping cool within the stone buildings

viscacha

and not to mention about 400,000 human beings per year

some climb to the top of Huayna picchu , the high peak just behind the city. im not sure but i think i can make out two people at the top.

looks as if one of them is gone now.

14.30 PM approx. if you look closely you will see a white aircraft flying past the upper part of Huayna Picchu

Machu Picchu is 2400 metres above sea level
Cuzco at 3360 metres is actually almost one kilometre higher in the sky.

the Urubamba river goes around the mountain

Some colorful country people in Cuzco, these people speak Quechua, the official language of the Incas.

i feel that i now understand why the peruvians always ask me if i have been to machu picchu. they are very proud of it. and so they should be, machu picchu is a truely work of genius and an exemplification of the magnificent civilization from which they decend.

links
machu picchu wiki
The Inca Empire
Quechua
Hiram Bingham

Music
Roxana Gutierrez - Solamente un Amor

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Cuzco city and The Sacred Valley of the Incas

Day 1

Coricancha was originally an Inca temple, the original name meant temple of the sun, it was the most important building in cuzco.
when the spanish arrived they destroyed it and built the catholic catedral of santo domingo on top of it. a remaining part of the the grey inca wall can be seen here in front of the church.
the catedral was knocked several times by earthquakes. all of the inca walls however remain intact as they were built to be earthquake proof.

here the Inca walls can be seen within the church walls.
the spanish had removed the roof and built a second story on top of the inca structure, this second story was knocked completely duringan earthquake.

the walls were plated with gold. gold had no monitary value to the incas whos economy was a barter system based on agricultural products. to the spanish however gold was money and all of the gold was removed from these temples.

after removing the gold, the spanish decorated the walls like this, however even the decorations fell off during the various earthquakes.

though the walls, built in a sophisticated interlocking system were earthquake proof they were not spanish proof.
the invaders made a point of destroying them and also dismantled much of the walls thinking that there may be gold inside as well as outside.
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saqsaywaman

view of cuzco form the hill of saqsaywaman

this is an inca fortress sitting on a hill which overlooks the city of cuzco.

the spanish removed much of the stone to build churches in cuzco.

to the Incas this stone was considered to be a sacred stone representing a frog looking up to the sky.

Tambomachay

the quechua name tambomachay means resting place. the water here is supposed to give you prolonged youth. apparently cuzquena beer is made from it which explains my youthful looks hehe

Day 2 the sacred valley

Today sees the second day of the tour where we see the ancient inca sites allong a place known as the sacred valley. the incans called it this because of the high fertility of the lands. the surrounding mountains were believed to be gods.

first stop was a small market in a small town called q'enqa to get us spending some of that juicy tourist money.

want to be a bank robber with a difference? they have all the gear in the q'enqa market.

chess boards, incas vs spanish

rosy cheeked mountain girl. lots of the mountain people have this distingtive color on their cheeks,i think it must be from a mixture of cold wind and sun exposure.

next stop are the ruins of Pisaq

the wider terraces were used for agricultural use. the narrow ones work as a support for the upper structures.

this is the structure at the top of the mountain, this would have been occupied by the higher figures in inca society, whilst the lower levels were occupied by the lower class.
the round building in the middle is a sun temple. it is built around a natural rock, this rock apparently is positioned perfectly to analyse the constellations and the sun positions of which the incas were experts.

moreearthquake proof walls. destroyed by guess who

the sacred valley lies below, still used to produce maize which is exported around the world in large amounts.

fresh orange juice.

pisaq from another angle.

next the journey took us through many kilometres of the sacred valley and onto the ruins of another incan temple known as ollantaytambo.

this structure actually was started by a pre-inca civilization, and the incas were building on top of it.

terraces leading up to the Ollantytambo, temple.

this mountain was known to the incas as the sacred mountain.

reason being that it has rock formations that look like an inca face.

can you see it now?
i think it looks better from the other side but i didnt go there.

the ollantytambo temple was not finished at the time when the spanish invaded and was therefore left permantly in a state of incompletion. here are some rocks which were prepared but were never put in place. historians say this would have been a huge temple if it were finished.

ollantytambo village.

then our journey takes us up through the mountains to a place called chinchero.

chicnchero is situated at 3700 metres above sea level and famed for its indigenous market. the market is not on today but what the hell.. lets go anyway.

we passed by this on the bus, i dont know what town it is.

snowcapped mountian revelas itself in the background.

strange land features, could this be earthquake damage?

note some darkish clouds, this is what they call the rainy season in cuzco.

indigenous women give a demonstration of the dyeing proceedures for the products they make.

all natural materials are used, such as , leaves, nuts, insects and flowers which as the lady explained is good for the skin and good for the environment.