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| Machu Picchu - https://www.kimkim.com/c/ultimate-guide-to-machu-picchu |
The History of Machu Picchu
Situated on a ridge between the Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu mountains in the the Sacred Valley region of Peru, Machu Picchu is also surrounded by the Urubamba River. Located north of the Inca capital of Cusco, now one of Peru's largest cities, Machu Picchu sits at a lower elevation, making it a milder and wetter climate than that of the areas surrounding it.
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| https://www.bestandestravel.com/where-is-machu-picchu/ |
Construction
Machu Picchu was built sometime (most likely 1450-60) during the reign of the Inca emperor, Pachacuti. The site is divided between urban and agriculture sectors. Terraces were built into the side of the mountain in order to provide some, but not all, of Machu Picchu's food. The urban area of the site features not only residential areas, but also separate royal sections and many religious areas as well. Smaller sites can be found in the areas surrounding the main site, including in the mountains and along the Inca trail, many of which still remain undiscovered today, hidden by the jungle.
Machu Picchu is famous for its impressive stonework, a trademark of Inca architecture. The stones that make up Machu Picchu are incredibly well placed and designed, chiseled to fit one another exactly, without mortar holding them together. Many structures incorporate the mountain into their building. The Inca built without the use of the wheel, large animals (besides llamas and alpacas), or iron. Most of Inca construction takes place underground, including the terraces at Machu Picchu and irrigation systems. Underground construction also provides protection from earthquakes and landslides, which are quite frequent in this area.
The site is truly impressive. Details such as water fountains, private gardens for royalty, or the perfect alignment of religious structures with solar events indicate that the Inca knew exactly how they wanted Machu Picchu to turn out. The site was designed not only to be beautiful, but functional and sustainable as well.
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| Terraces - http://www.maya-portal.net/node/143 |
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| Stonework - http://exploringtheearth.com/2015/06/30/machupicchu/ |
Use
The use of Machu Picchu is still not completely sure. Upon its early rediscovery by Hiram Bingham, it was hypothesized that the city was the Lost City of the Inca, the final hiding spot before the Inca were defeated by the Spanish. This is unlikely, as the actual last refuge of the Inca was the city of Vilcabamba. Bingham also hypothesized that the city was the home of the "Virgins of the Sun" due to the findings of what he believed to be all female skeletal remains. Due to the restudying of these and many other remains found in Machu Picchu, this theory has been disproven as well. There is a mix of both sexes represented in human remains from the site.
The now more accurate interpretations of skeletons lends itself to today's most accepted theory of Machu Picchu: its use as a royal retreat or sanctuary. As stated above, Machu Picchu was equipped and designed to accommodate both royalty and their needs. The skeletal remains support this idea as they represent populations not just from the immediate surrounding area, but across the Inca Empire. It is hypothesized that many of these people came to serve the royals who stayed there. The privacy, isolation, and easily defensible location of Machu Picchu also contribute to this theory. While not only a beautiful and spiritual place, Machu Picchu was also somewhere they could relax safely.
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| Human Sacrifice and the Virgins of the Sun - https://timelessimperium.wordpress.com/2017/01/25/the-chosen-women-gender-as-a-tool-in-the-incan-empire/ |
The Inca: Rise and Fall
Just like the Inca themselves, I will try to make this brief but powerful. The Inca people first appear in the highlands of Peru in the late 12th to early 13th century. Their empire officially began in 1438, following the decline of the Wari people, from which the Inca were largely influenced. While the empire only lasted a bit more than one hundred years before falling to the Spanish in 1572, the amount the Inca accomplished in that time was immense.
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| Inca Empire - https://www.pinterest.com/pin/328762841523424644/ |
The Inca established the largest empire ever in South America, and was the largest in the world at that time. Stretching all the way from Quito, Ecuador to south of Santiago, Chile, it comprised of around 10 million inhabitants. To travel across their territory, the Inca built extensive road systems, over 20,000 miles in total, many of which are still used today (one example: the Inca trail to Machu Picchu).
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| Quipu - http://www.ancientpages.com/2015/02/09/secrets-quipu-one-mysterious-phenomena-existed-odd-number-dimensions/ |
The Inca had no written language. However, one way they used to keep track of information was a counting tool called a quipu, ropes with knots in them, although how to interpret them is unknown. They also had an extensive knowledge of astronomy, which their religion was largely centered on. Inca religion was also largely centered around nature as deities. For example, the emperor was considered the divine Sapa Inca, were believed to be descendants of the sun god, Inti. Like many Ancient American civilizations, the Inca practiced human sacrifice as part of their religious beliefs. The Inca incorporated their religion into their monumental architecture. Many of these cites are found in Cusco, the Inca capital. Unfortunately, many Inca sites were destroyed by the Spanish or have been reclaimed by the jungle.
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| Ruins being Overtaken by the Jungle - http://animal-jam-clans.wikia.com/wiki/File:Jungle_ruins.jpg |
Today, the legacy of the Inca in Peru is extensive. Their legacy is both external and visual but also internal. Almost a quarter of Peruvian population is indigenous, their ancestors being the Inca themselves. Peru's economy relies largely on archaeologically based tourism: most especially, Machu Picchu.
Machu Picchu and Tourism
After famously being "discovered" (due to the fact that many locals still knew of Machu Picchu at the time, I will call this "rediscovery") by Hiram Bingham on his Yale sponsored expedition in 1911 to find the lost city of Vitcos, Machu Picchu instantly quickly became a site of fascination. However, the number of visitors today has grown dramatically, and only keeps getting bigger.
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| Hiram Bingham (left) on his expedition - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14057296 |
Peru's tourism industry is the third largest contributor to its economy. With over 3 million foreign visitors last year, 2017, the country relies on tourism for income, jobs, and a global voice.
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| Increase in Visitors to Machu Picchu each year since 1980 - https://www.machupicchutrek.net/how-many-tourists-visit-machu-picchu-annually/ |
Over five-thousand people visit Machu Picchu a day. It is one of the most popular sites in South America and consistently ranked as one of the best landmarks in the world. In fact, in 2017, TripAdvisor named Machu Picchu the top landmark in the world. However, many worry the site will not survive its drastic increase in visitors. Already changes and destruction of the site has been seen. In an article from 1985, author Lynn Meisch reports that more damage has been done in the past ten years than in 500. In 1985, there were less than 200,000 visitors. Now there are millions.
Bingham about Machu Picchu: "everyone who goes to South America wants to see it"
Machu Picchu was classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1983. It is one of the few sites considered mixed, in that it has both cultural and natural resources. Below are the criteria UNESCO gives as reasoning behind its selection as a site of universal value:
Criterion (i): The Inca City of the Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu is the articulating centre of its surroundings, a masterpiece of art, urbanism, architecture and engineering of the Inca Civilization. The working of the mountain, at the foot of the Huaya Picchu, is the exceptional result of integration with its environment, the result from a gigantic effort as if it were an extension of nature.
Criterion (iii):The Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu is a unique testimony of the Inca Civilization and shows a well-planned distribution of functions within space, territory control, and social, productive, religious and administrative organization.
Criterion (vii): The historic monuments and features in the Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu are embedded within a dramatic mountain landscape of exceptional scenic and geomorphological beauty thereby providing an outstanding example of a longstanding harmonious and aesthetically stunning relationship between human culture and nature.
Criterion (ix): Covering part of the transition between the High Andes and the Amazon Basin the Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu shelters a remarkably diverse array of microclimates, habitats and species of flora and fauna with a high degree of endemism. The property is part of a larger area unanimously considered of global significance for biodiversity conservation.
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| https://www.freevector.com/peru-machu-picchu-landscape-illustration-vector-26403 |
Machu Picchu provides an excellent case study of the intersections of archaeology and cultural history with ecology and biodiversity. As Machu Picchu becomes more popular each year, scientists, residents, indigenous people, government officials, businesses, corporations, and tourists are all faced with the immense question of how to preserve such an important ecological and historical landscape. There is no clear solution, rather many different approaches and concerns that are continually presented and addressed in many fields.
The expansive research undertaken at Machu Picchu can easily be classified as one of the most interdisciplinary palaeoecological studies in Latin America, if not the world. It is an excellent example of a landscape in which human and natural forces cannot be separated after a long history of entanglement and thus must find a way to harmonize with one another.
Sources
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Accessed November 21, 2018.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/1913/04/machu-picchu-peru-inca-hiram-
bingham-discovery/.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Machu Picchu." Encyclopædia Britannica. August
17, 2018. Accessed November 21, 2018.
https://www.britannica.com/place/Machu-Picchu.
Cartwright, Mark. "Inca Civilization." Ancient History Encyclopedia. November 27, 2018.
Accessed November 21, 2018. https://www.ancient.eu/Inca_Civilization/.
Connolly, Colleen. "'Lost City' No More, Machu Picchu Feels the Strain of Booming Tourism."
Chicago Tribune. May 31, 2017. Accessed November 21, 2018.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/travel/ct-machu-picchu-tourism-boom-dangers
-travel-0611-20170526-story.html.
Dunnell, Tony. "How Many People Visit Peru Each Year?" TripSavvy. November 13, 2018.
Accessed November 21, 2018.
https://www.tripsavvy.com/amount-of-peru-visitors-each-year-1619647.
Hearn, Kelly, and Jason Golomb. "Machu Picchu." National Geographic. April 13, 2017.
Accessed November 21, 2018.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/archaeology-and-history/archaeology/machu-picchu-mystery/.
"Machu Picchu." Wikipedia. November 18, 2018. Accessed November 21, 2018.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machu_Picchu.
Meisch, Lynn A. "Machu Picchu: Conserving an Inca Treasure." Archaeology 38.6
(November/December 1985): 18-25. Accessed October 11, 2018.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/41730268.
Silverman, Helaine. "Touring Ancient Times: The Present and Presented Past in Contemporary
Peru." American Anthropologist 104.3 (September 2002): 881-902. Accessed October
11, 2018. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27859260.
Than, Ker. "What Was Machu Picchu For? Top Five Theories Explained." National Geographic.
July 23, 2011. Accessed November 21, 2018.
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/07/110721-machu-picchu-100th-anniversary-archaeology-science/.
Whitman, Mark. "How Many Tourists Visit Machu Picchu Annually?" Machu Picchu Trek.
September 12, 2018. Accessed November 21, 2018.
https://www.machupicchutrek.net/how-many-tourists-visit-machu-picchu-annually/.
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