Adrian's Blog

Machu Picchu

During the early 13th century, there were a group of people called the Inca who came to power in the highlands of Peru. Their first king, Pachacuti, ordered them to build a great religious city (ruins now) for him.

Machu Picchu was built in between two fault lines. The reason it hasn’t given away to an earthquake is because of the stonework. The stonework in Machu Picchu is very precise. In fact, if you tried to slip a credit card in between the stones, you could not.

Now how did the Inca make such precise stonework without steel tools or having to put mortar in between the stones? Well, they found some stone (Machu Picchu has a large deposit of granite at which they get their stone), and made it roughly brick-shaped with other, most likely harder, rocks. once they got the rock in place, they started chiseling away and made it perfect. Throughout the city, there are many fountains and drainage systems so that the city wouldn’t erode away.

There is a stone pillar on Machu Picchu’s highest point called Intiwatana. The Intiwatana is a religious stone for the Inca. The Inca worshiped mountains and the Urubamba river that runs below machu Picchu. The Intiwatana is positioned so that it’s four sides face four major mountains. Again, The Inca worshiped the mountains.

Then there is a temple called the three windows temple. Obviously, it is a temple with three windows in it. The three windows represent the three parts of our world. The underground (Uku-Pacha), present time (Kay-Pacha), and the heaven (Hanan-Pacha). These are just three of five windows. The other two represent the rising of the Sun, and an important event in everyday life.

The temple of the condor is yet another temple of the Inca. The condor was sacred to the Inca because the condors would gather clouds, with their wings, that would produce rain, the best fertilizer in the land.

The Inca were also great farmers. to get to the top of where Machu Picchu was built, they built terraces. The terraces helped them get up the mountain, but also gave them room to grow food.

If you want to learn about Machu Picchu in much more detail than here, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89Pd5cuwrvI to watch part one of four. I strongly recommend going and watching the videos. They are great!

Sources:

http://archaeology.about.com/od/incaarchaeology/a/inca_empire_2.htm

http://www.funtrivia.com/en/subtopics/Mysterious-Machu-http://archaeology.about.com/od/incaarchaeology/a/inca_empire_2.htm Picchu-27471.html

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/top-10/peru/machu-picchu/secrets/

http://www.machupicchu.org/ruins/temple_of_the_three_windows.htm

http://www.enjoy-machu-picchu.org/architecture/temple-condor.php