The ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu was built on an inaccessible place. It is located at an altitude of more than 2000 meters above sea level, at the very foot of Huayna Picchu Mountain. If you look at this mountain from a bird's eye view, you can clearly see in its outlines the face of a person looking into the sky.
The ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu is today the tourist center of Peru. In translation, the name of the city sounds like "Old Mountain". It is located about 100 kilometers from the capital of Cuzco. Many tourists come here to touch the heritage of the great people. The admiration that the ancient city of Machu Picchu evokes is beyond words. He seems to float in the clouds. It is not for nothing that it is also called the "sky-high city".
Inca city
The ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu was built in the 15th century. It is also called "transcendental", because the city is located at an altitude of two and a half thousand meters above sea level. It stretches for eight kilometers and consists of several levels that are connected to each other through a large number of steps. There are more than three thousand of these stone ledges. Machu Picchu did not live up to its century a little because of the attack on it by the Spanish conquistadors, who cruelly dealt with the inhabitants of the ancient city. Those who survived fled.
Machu Picchu became a ghost town. It was reopened only in 1911. Yale University professor Hiram Bingham has found the abandoned city of the Incas. There is an interesting story about how this scientist found the ancient city, but perhaps this is a fiction. The professor was walking all over the territory in an attempt to find at least something that would indicate the presence of a city, when he unexpectedly met the boy. He carried in his hands an interesting and unusual ceramic jug. Bingham asked where he got such a beautiful and unusual vessel. Adults who met on the path of the professor always avoided communication on topics about the ancient city, and the child immediately told the scientist how to get to the Inca city of Machu Picchu.
Unique architecture
A huge secret is the architectural uniqueness of the buildings of the ancient city. At the very beginning, when the study of the finds began, archaeologists came to the conclusion that all the buildings were erected with errors. They decided that everything was being built according to improperly designed plans. But later, upon closer examination of architectural buildings, scientists discovered a very curious fact. In any earthquake, the boulders from which the buildings were built move in such a way that the building does not collapse when shaken. They move aside on different sides, and then stand up to their original place again. It's just amazing! Why this city was built in general remains a big mystery today. There are suggestions that Machu Picchu is a sanctuary city. Maybe that's the way it is. Since there are mainly temples in it.
Lost City Knowledge
For many years it was believed that Machu Picchu was irretrievably lost. But, if you read the letters of Professor Bingham, you can understand that many local residents knew about the ghost town, and the road to it was always quite accessible. The professor devoted a lot of research to the "lost city". But whether he found what he was looking for in fact is unknown. Has the secret of the city of the Incas been revealed to him? There is no way to find out about this.
Systematic research indicates that Pachacutec was the chief among the Incas. There are suggestions that it was on his instructions that the grandiose construction of the city of Machu Picchu began. Also, according to research data, it is known that the city was abandoned by all its inhabitants around 1532. What happened then? It remains only to believe the assumptions of scientists, and they say that the smallpox epidemic drove out all the townspeople. She also became the cause of the death of more than a thousand Incas. The same Spaniards brought the disease. But there is also another version of the unfolding events. It tells about the local residents who left the city before the arrival of the Spanish conquerors long before that.
10 fun facts about Machu Picchu
It is assumed that the conquistadors still did not manage to find the lost city, no matter how they tried. This happened due to the fact that there was no way to get to Machu Picchu. The roads there were difficult to access and practically impassable.
The world did not know about the existence of the Inca city until 1911. The Incas lived apart.
Although the discoverer Professor Bingham told the world about his amazing find, there is still information that there were researchers who discovered the city much earlier than him. Why only Bingham managed to tell about the ancient city is not clear.
In 1983, the ancient city of Machu Picchu became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Scientists and archaeologists have identified several parts in the city. The city was divided into an agricultural region, a sector of private estates, an area of residence of the nobility and the ruler of the Inca people Pachacuteca. His area of residence was called "sacred land."
The ancient city was built so competently that it is many times superior to modern architecture, although it looks quite classic for all Inca buildings. It is surprising that the roads are paved with stones. In the crevices of which, not a single blade of grass breaks through. Yes, it should be noted, the Incas were famous for their work and were excellent masons. They built their buildings in such a way that they did not need any materials to hold them together. The stones were placed so precisely that no mortar was needed, and the Incas developed a building system that included a “locking stone” or “keystone” with many angles to which all other stones fit. This is amazing for that time, but today it is also a phenomenon!
There is a sacred stone in the central part of the city. It is called "Intihuatana", which means, translated from the ancient language of the Incas, "the place where the Sun is tied." This sacred stone, in addition to the magical properties that the Incas attributed to it, performed a completely everyday, but no less serious function - it was a calendar. This stone is a find that has survived to our time. He is one of those ritual stones that are found in South America.
During the excavations, many amazing artifacts were found in the ancient city. These include statues made of the purest silver, ceramic dishes, and many fine jewelry of fine jewelry work. In addition, numerous letters have survived.
There is an assumption that nevertheless the inhabitants of the city died from smallpox brought by the Spanish conquistadors. During the excavations, many human remains were found. This has yet to be proven, but perhaps this version has a right to exist.
At the beginning of excavations, scientists and archaeologists believed that there were no more than one hundred and fifty buildings in the ancient city of the Incas. But today there are many more of them. A detailed scan revealed that more than four hundred and fifty buildings of various orientations were erected in the city. Most of them were temples, the rest of the buildings were warehouses and were built to store all kinds of supplies. The townspeople planned to live happily ever after in their hometown, but something prevented them from doing it.
Perhaps, over time, the riddles will be revealed, and there will be explanations for many of the questions that history asks mankind. But the fact that the ancient city of the Incas was found and today is a cultural property is already great!
