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Machu Picchu, uncovering a mystery

Author: Julio Valdivia Carrasco

On July 24, 1911, the American Hiram Bingham discovered the ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru. We have printed a story, courtesy of researcher Julio Valdivia Carrasco, where we are told the details about the construction and subsequent abandonment of this jewel of Inca architecture.

Very few know the true history of this great man, because it was hidden from view of people to the s. XX and most of the chroniclers of the years of the conquest was not mentioned nor received any information about his existence.


It's a common mistake to attribute the Inka Pachakuteq, son of Wiraqocha, the construction of this beautiful sanctuary called Machu Picchu. The reality is that the construction of the Inca citadel on the hill steep, we now know as Machu Picchu, it was during the heyday of the Inka Wiraqocha, eighth king of Cuzco.


In fact, the Inca ordered the construction of a beautiful hill palace for his housing, temples to the sun god and moon goddess and numerous houses (Wasi) to house its beautiful women (aqllakuna), all very similar to those who were in Cuzco.


Because of its resemblance to the city of Cuzco residents would call him "The Little Cuzco." (Uchuy Qosqo).


Machupicchu fulfilled, undoubtedly, a specific function: to be the favorite place of Inka Wiraqocha for rest and recreation. An accessory role was to carry out astronomical observatory.


There were beautiful places specially equipped to carry out leisure activities: sports, hunting, theater, dance, etc.. Just as many homes for their favorite women (Aqllawasi).


It reached its zenith during the reign of Wiraqocha Inka, who ruled like a king Cuzco kind, gentle and beloved by his subjects. Its decline started when the cowardly flees Wiraqocha Inka, Cuzco before leaving the military invasion Chanka powerful state, led by an ambitious king named Uscovilca, and takes refuge in the citadel since become a permanent resident.


Kusi, one of the children under Wiraqocha, without hearing the advice of his father, who asked humbly submit to the Chankas, faces the invading army and defeat the paths and bloody battles. Since then Kusi Yupanqui, virtually assumes power, creates its own army and the Royal Council of Wiraqocha subjected to it.


The place where Wiraqocha fled before the attack Chanka was at that time called Llaki qawana ("The look of sadness"). The Cuzco qawana Kaqya call it. ("Place where you look at the lightning"). Only later was called Machu Picchu.


After the victory over the young Kusi Chanka humbly offered the spoils of war to his father with contempt Wiraqocha who replied that his son and successor Urko, a hopeless drunk and sexual pervert, should receive the booty. Kusi Yupanqui, offended by the rudeness of his father, shouted angrily:


"... He had not won victory for him as they were such women should tread Inca Urco and other siblings ..." (Juan de Betanzos)
Embittered by the rudeness that his father had done, he returned to Cuzco Kusi to consolidate his power and focus on reconstruction and beautification of the city. But secrecy also planned the death of its chief rival, his brother Urko. This fact took place shortly afterwards.


Wiraqocha strongly moved and saddened by the murder of Urko, his most beloved son, decided to stay forever in his citadel and not to see his young son and victorious Kusi Yupanqui, who hated the very depths of his being.
Only a clever strategy of the Royal Council, brought out of his refuge Wiraqocha to visit Cuzco: He said his son Kusi as "invited" to observe personally the transformation that had taken place in the main city.
Once in Cuzco, Wiraqocha still surprised by the victory of his son to the Chankas, resigned and the death of his favorite son and successor Urko and admired by the power attained by the despised son, seeing the great transformation of the city Cuzco, named his son Kusi: PACHAKUTEQ with the nickname ("The processor in the world").


However, Kusi not want to wait longer to become king and quickly pulled the tassel of his father's head and placed himself, becoming recognized since then as absolute monarch, adopting the name that his father had given him: PACHAKUTEQ.


Abjectly humiliated his father, making it kneel before him and ask forgiveness for your rudeness. Then punished him ordering drink plenty of chicha (corn beer) unclean. Finally banished him to live until his death in his "recreation center" now become his abode of sorrow and helplessness.


The Inka Pachakuteq, thus making known his real personality of despotic king, cruel and vindictive.
After having endured ten years of loneliness and humiliation, Wiraqocha king died. His son Pachakuteq ordered in contempt for his father, the total depopulation and abandonment of the citadel as mentioned Llaki qawana call and we now know as Machu Picchu.


Thus began the decline of the beautiful buildings of Machu Picchu, slowly being covered by dense vegetation. Just stay in the memory of some of its inhabitants, those who were secretly transmitted to their descendants as a distant and sad reality.


In 1900 a local farmer named Augustin Lizarraga, who lived near the area, he dared to visit the ancient ruins old and being deeply impressed by the grandeur of its buildings. But he dared not make known his discovery for ten years, for fear of being considered mad or be punished for revealing a state secret.


Finally, in 1911, the American explorer Hiram Bingham, a professor at Yale University, was told by the peasant Lizarraga the existence of the Inca citadel, lost in a mountain called Machupicchu and guided to the site. His surprise was great and immediately claimed the discovery and reported it proudly to his see.


Then appropriated many of the treasures found (more than 5000 pieces), which is then sent or brought to the U.S. Today the Peruvian authorities are trying to recover this valuable heritage of Peru.


From the author:
Julio Valdivia Carrasco was born in Ayacucho, Peru in 1941. He studied philosophy at the Universidad Nacional de San Cristobal de Huamanga-Ayacucho. He taught at several universities university in Peru, including the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos.He was one of the founders of the Faculty of History - Social and Education of the Universidad Nacional Pedro Ruiz Gallo of Lambayeque, where he held the Dean of the Faculty. Retired from teaching, now continues his research in the field of philosophy, social sciences and history



Read the best article on Machu Picchu,

by Antonio Zapata July 7, 2011

Several readers of Machu Picchu, 550 years "is one of the best written. The author is always our columnist, the renowned historian Antonio Zapata. Here we repeat the entire column, just today to celebrate 100 years of considering many no discovery, but the "rediscovery" of Marvel of Peru.
"Machu Picchu, 550 years" by Antonio Zapata
Now that the media celebrates the first 100 years of Hiram Bin-Gham, we should remember that the construction of Machu Picchu dating from 1450-1480. The reigning sovereign was Pachacutec, who came to get the victory over the Chanca allowing us Tawantinsuyu. Then the Inca conquered the Colla and extended its rule to the plateau. He stopped and associated with one of his sons as co-regent. As the Inca warrior required a complete cycle of conquests, Pachacuti chose the young Tupac Yupanqui, who led the great imperial expansion as a military commander.
Once approved this appointment, another self-imposed mission Pachacutec. The old Inca understood that an empire implies a work of spiritual renewal of the elite. Pachacutec political dominance would connect with an ideological transformation that psychic power granted to the Inca aristocracy. Therefore, it was the promoter of the sun god. Increased its importance in the Andean pantheon, specializing in family in worship. Theirs were the priests and warriors par excellence.
During his reign, Pachacuti was a struggling architect and urban planner. Cuzco was the capital itself the subject of a deep reconstruction. Upon completion of the new Cusco and define its characteristics, square, neighborhoods, roads and temples, Pachacutec built his own real estate. That was the time of Machu Picchu.
The imperial rulers disposed of such properties that ethnohistory has called "real estate".On land they understand and servers belonging to the extended family of the sovereign, called "panaca." This group retained the mummy of the Inca worship after death and was responsible for his eternal worship.
As part of his substance, Pachacutec built a large complex, which included several preparatory stations are along the Inca Trail. The most important is a variety of sources and platforms in an enchanted place called Wiñay Huaina.
Later, at the top of Machu Picchu is a quarry of white granite, very supple and elegant, suitable for construction. In addition, the hill associate, Huayna Picchu, ending a line of mountains which begins in the great snowy Salkantay called one of the largest Apus Cusco.
Therefore, a circuit Machu Picchu sacred ends. The outer wall isolates profane area inside is a scale reproduction of the same Cusco. The square separates two neighborhoods, up and down, the temples are on each side and also platforms. The religious center called "tower" is a miniature reproduction of the Coricancha of Cusco, where now stands the church of Santo Domingo. These semicircular stone walls finely fitted up the largest of the prides of the Inca architects and are reserved for major ceremonial centers.
Pachacutec built Machu Picchu to visit regularly, develop ceremonies and astronomical calculations. During his absence, the place was in the care of a farm, the remains and funerary objects have just returned from Yale University. Among others small bells, for personal use, and incenses very worn. Both objects allow us to imagine the holiday rituals of the Incas, marked by incense, aromatic smells and rhythms.
A 100 years of Hiram Bingham, the public knows little about the history of Machu Picchu.Well worth the celebration to spread his scientific knowledge, which obviously contradicts the absurd legends that spread from the start, its supposed scientific discoverer.



The original story of the discovery
By Hiram Bingham
Photographs of the expedition

Machu Picchu 1911-2011
Peruvian Andes, noon on July 24, 1911. Three men climb with hands and feet headlong and abrupt slope. At the foot of the Urubamba River is like any other day its course rushed to the Amazon. The heart of one of the expedition, Hiram Bingham, a 35-year-old assistant professor of Latin American history at Yale University, late at breakneck speed.
His eyes scan trees, rocks and bushes trying to locate the target of their difficult ascent, restless, and sweaty as you go along the path opened by your guide at least, an Indian peasant established across the river that claims to know the existence of the ruins. "In the Shadow of Machu Picchu peak," he has said over and over again. When, after some rest and much exhaustion, arrive on the scene, Bingham stunned the site includes opening before him. In the dense tangle of undergrowth overlooks a maze of terraces and walls, a ghost town that takes about 400 years hidden from the outside world. "That took my breath away [...]-write later. It was like a dream unlikely. "
But was it really unlikely?
Machu Picchu Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu, has become the best-known archaeological site visited in South America: an Inca city that flies over the Andes from its 2438 meters high, a myth made victorious inaccessible rock, which reputation, prestige and legend have only grown since that day in July 1911. A greater glory of Bingham.Archaeologist conscientious, dedicated and meticulous researcher, dedicated his life to exploring and publicizing its spectacular find. He knew well that he was not the first to see the ancient Inca city. The settlers in the area were always aware of the existence of some ruins at the top of the stream falling steeply to the valley. One of them, Agustin Lizarraga, boasted of having walked among the stones Incas in more than one occasion, and had left his signature on the front of the Temple of Three Windows. Meanwhile, some 80 years before the German explorer and adventurer Augusto Bern had also found its existence.But Bingham was aware that being first was not really important. What matters, what matters, was to show and demonstrate the value of these stones, to unravel its meaning, put this city in history and make it known to the world. Bingham did.
The immediate task was to clear the ground and clean the area, devoured by the insatiable appetite of the forest, a work he did with great care and took time and great effort. Accurate notes were also taken to develop a topographic map of the area. Work and more work in the midst of the commotion and constant consciousness of treading a unique place. On the scale of the ruins and, above all, its beautiful location.
The old city occupies a narrow ridge that connects curved, like a double slope, the peaks of Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu. View from the top, streets and buildings seem to hold a miracle in a fragile balance on the precipice. However, the buildings have defied the centuries and nature, and today one can follow the architectural and urban plan knowing one chosen from the gods to see a place and a unique landscape. Thanks to the skill of the Incas. Thanks also to Bingham and his team, who in the late spring of 1912, barely a year after the discovery, staged an expedition sponsored by Yale University and National Geographic Society who arrived in Cusco and Urubamba canyon and spent seven months digging and photographing the site, raising maps, recognizing old roads and summoning of the pieces found, clay, bronze and stone, and valuable mummies from tombs. An archaeological treasure that left Peru with official permission to Yale, triggering, especially in recent years, a bitter dispute between the state and Peruvian researchers on the one hand and the other American university. This fall, on the eve of the centenary of the discovery of Bingham, Yale finally announced their intention to return all pieces to Peru.Finally, the Machu Picchu Inca jewelry (more valuable for their meaning at all for their precious materials, despite the many legends) return to their homeland.
Bingham immediately reported the results of their work to the scientific community, thus giving the green light to a long series of hypotheses about what had been the fate of the city: first settlement of the Incas, predates even the founding of Cusco , the capital of the Empire last refuge of Tupac Amaru rebel king after the Spanish conquest the cult ceremonial center and reserved for kings and priests recreational villa ... exclusive royalty assumptions and myths, because Machu Picchu became the Inca symbol of resistance and the incarnation of the identity of the Peruvian people against any foreign enemy.
Myths, in a sense, still survive. Theories have been piling up, and gradually merging from forging new research and more data. According to the archaeologist and indigenous Peruvian Luis Eduardo Valcárcel, a contemporary of Bingham, and especially Johan Reinhard, an anthropologist, an expert in high-mountain archeology and National Geographic resident explorer, there is no doubt the religious and sacred city based primarily on its location. A location determined by the relationship and allegorical magic of Machu Picchu with the two peaks brothers (both picchus) and other nearby Andean peaks, and almost circular protection provided by the Urubamba river, whose course describes a curve on the basis of Mountain, which surrounds three of the four sides. And also, and very special for purifying function of water channeled into thin stone channels and intended to devise from source to source and from terrace to terrace.
Finally, the peculiarities of architecture and urbanism in the context Machu Picchu Inca world abound in the interpretation of their destiny and sacred ritual, repeating the choice of a site tropological (and somewhat unusual in its inaccessibility) to raise the strength, a fact which led to various singularities constructive. Valcarcel insists on the adequacy of the settlement pattern Andean Inca construction, and highlights the buildings with gable roofs, adapted to a wet area such as the Urubamba Valley, or the existence of windows and windows to promote ventilation with which combat moisture and heat in a climate very different from Cusco, whose massive, megalithic structures served as models throughout the Empire.
An exception to a unique architecture. But most telling of research over the past 30 years may be their dating. The decisive contribution of manuscripts, dating from the mid-sixteenth century allowed Valcárcel place, almost without doubt, the construction of Machu Picchu in the reign of Pachacuti (from 1438 to 1471), "That Transform the World", a true creator of the Empire Inca. It was the first ruler of his dynasty who left written records, and he was responsible for the consolidation of the kingdom, expanding its borders and the enrichment of Cusco with new jobs and homes and especially with the rebuilding of the Temple of the Sun Machu Picchu as all references have been raised as a ceremonial center and real break in the middle of the fifteenth century.
Bingham came close to similar interpretations, with the added merit of having few clues.He noted the key role of temples in the sacred square, reported on the solar observatory Intiwatana or closely related to the worship of the sun god, and did not hesitate to define the location of the ruins as impregnable, "Machu Picchu is essentially a city -haven [...] As far as I know, nothing in the Andes a better place defended by nature. "
The archaeologist methodical and precise in Bingham had not prevented him from enjoying the beauty of the landscape and appreciate your choice. "The Incas were, no doubt, lovers of the beautiful landscapes. Many of the ruins of its most important buildings are located on top of hills, ridges and hills from where there are particularly beautiful panoramas. For it is remarkable that the architecture of Machu Picchu and much to impress the huge stone work of a people who did not know the iron and steel tools, neither one nor the other left in the visitor's mind more than the beauty mark and the ineffable grandeur of the surroundings. "
Beauty, grandeur, excitement at finding so desired. Clearing, excavation, location of burials and mummies, deposits with useful and ornamental ceramics. Bingham told all in the April special issue of National Geographic 1913 with a thoroughness, accuracy and detail amazing. The same text now presents this special edition to commemorate the centenary of a bright indeed. A text that exudes passion and professionalism in equal parts. Also, the modesty of those who know a privileged witness of history designed to give public testimony. The realization of a dream very real and very believable.
READ FULL STORY ORIGINAL HIRAM BINGHAM IN SPECIAL EDITION PUBLISHED BY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SPAIN

Machu Picchu to celebrate 2nd year as world wonder

Andina

With a tribute to the earth or Pachamama and an Inca-related theater play, Cusco authorities and people will celebrate the second anniversary of Machu Picchu election as one of the New Seven World Wonders.

On July 7th, visiting authorities will receive decorations and will participate in ancient rituals such as the tribute to the Pachamama (earth in Quechua language) and a civic parade of all public and private organizations.

The main day's ceremony will also include a theater play performed by over 40 local artists.

In July 2007 Machu Picchu was chosen as one of the new seven wonders of the world in a contest organized by the New 7 Wonders Foundation.

The artistic and cultural activities will take place between July 1st and 7th. Admission is free.

 

Machu Picchu's Mysteries Continue to Lure Explorers

By Kelly Hearn and Jason Golomb

On the morning of July 24, 1911, a tall lecturer-cum-explorer from Yale University set off in a cold drizzle to investigate rumors of ancient Inca ruins in Peru. The explorer chopped his way through thick jungle, crawled across a "bridge" of slender logs bound together with vines, and crept through underbrush hiding venomous fer-de-lance pit vipers.

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Inca citadel of Machu Picchu in Peru

Photograph by Martin Gray

Two hours into the hike, the explorer and his two escorts came across a grass-covered hut. A pair of Indian farmers walked them a short way before handing them over to a small Indian boy. With the boy leading the way, Hiram Bingham stumbled upon one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century—and what was named in 2007 as one of the new seven wonders of the world: Machu Picchu.

What Bingham saw was a dramatic and towering citadel of stone cut from escarpments. Fashioned by men without mortar, the stones fit so tightly together that not even a knife's blade could fit between them. He wondered: Why? By whom? For what?

Certainly, what he saw was awe-invoking. Contemporary Peruvian expert Luis Lumbreras, the former director of Peru's National Institute of Culture, describes "a citadel made up of palaces and temples, dwellings and storehouses," a site fulfilling ceremonial religious functions.

Machu Picchu is formed of buildings, plazas, and platforms connected by narrow lanes or paths. One sector is cordoned off to itself by walls, ditches, and, perhaps, a moat—built, writes Lumbreras, "not as part of a military fortification [but] rather as a form of restricted ceremonial isolation."

The Wrong "Lost City"

Bingham's discovery was published in the April 1913 issue of National Geographic magazine, bringing the mountaintop citadel to the world's attention. (The National Geographic Society helped fund Bingham on excursions to Machu Picchu in 1912 and 1915.)

Bingham believed he had found Vilcabamba, the so-called Lost City of the Inca where the last of the independent Inca rulers waged a years-long battle against Spanish conquistadors. Bingham argued for and justified his conclusions for almost 50 years after his discovery, and his explanations were widely accepted.

What Bingham had found, however, was not the lost city, but a lost city.

In 1964, adventurer Gene Savoy identified ruins and proved that Espiritu Pampa (in the Vilcabamba region of Peru, west of Machu Picchu) was the lost city that Bingham had originally sought. Ironically, Bingham had actually discovered these ruins at Espiritu Pampa during his 1911 trek. He uncovered a few Inca-carved stone walls and bridges but dismissed the ruins and ultimately focused on Machu Picchu. Savoy uncovered much of the rest.

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Reconstructed stone terraces and buildings in Machu Picchu, Peru

Photograph by David Evans

So what then was this city that Bingham had revealed? There were no accounts of Machu Picchu in any of the much-studied chronicles of the Spanish invasion and occupation. There was nothing to document that it even existed at all, let alone its purpose.

Bingham theorized that Machu Picchu had served as a convent of sorts where chosen women from the Inca realm were trained to serve the Inca leader and his coterie. He found more than a hundred skeletons at the site and believed that roughly 75 percent of the skeletons were female, but modern studies have shown a more reasonable fifty-fifty split between male and female bones.

Bingham also believed that Machu Picchu was the mythical Tampu-tocco, the birthplace of the Inca forefathers.

Modern Theories

Modern research has continued to modify, correct, and mold the legend of Machu Picchu. Research conducted by John Rowe, Richard Burger, and Lucy Salazar-Burger indicates that rather than being a defensive stronghold, Machu Picchu was a retreat built by and for the Inca ruler Pachacuti. Burger has suggested it was built for elites wanting to escape the noise and congestion of the city.

Brian Bauer, an expert in Andean civilization at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a National Geographic grantee, says Machu Picchu—which was built around A.D. 1450—was, in fact, relatively small by Inca standards and maintained only about 500 to 750 people.

One thing is certain, says Bauer, archaeological evidence makes it clear that the Inca weren't the only people to live at Machu Picchu. The evidence shows, for instance, varying kinds of head modeling, a practice associated with peoples from coastal regions as well as in some areas of the highlands. Additionally, ceramics crafted by a variety of peoples, even some from as far as Lake Titicaca, have been found at the site.

"All this suggests that many of the people who lived and died at Machu Picchu may have been from different areas of the empire," Bauer says.

As for farming, Machu Picchu's residents likely made use of the grand terraces surrounding it. But experts say these terraces alone couldn't have sustained the estimated population of the day and that farming most likely also took place in the surrounding hills.

Dr. Johan Reinhard, a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, has spent years studying ceremonial Inca sites at extreme altitudes. He's gathered information from historical, archaeological, and ethnographical sources to demonstrate that Machu Picchu was built in the center of a sacred landscape.

Machu Picchu is nearly surrounded by the Urubamba River, which is revered by people in the region still today. The mountains that cradle the site also are important sacred landforms. "Taken together, these features have meant that Machu Picchu formed a cosmological, hydrological, and sacred geographical center for a vast region," Reinhard says.

Machu Picchu Today

In September 2007, Yale University agreed to return to Peru some of the thousands of artifacts that Bingham removed to Yale to study during his years of exploration and research. These items will go into a new museum that the Peruvian government has agreed to build in Cusco.

Being named a modern world wonder is a mixed blessing for the people of Cusco, the former center of the Inca world and the closest city to Machu Picchu. The site is a source of national pride for Peru, as well as a valuable tourist attraction. However, with an increase in international interest comes an increase in pollution, a need for hotels and other facilities, and the need to protect the lost city that the Western world didn't know existed.

It's highly unlikely that researchers will find an archaeological smoking gun that will definitively identify the purpose and uses of Machu Picchu. Scientists, however, continue to excavate and rebuild the site. Modern scientific advances, such as those that re-identified the gender of the skeletons that Bingham found, could help uncover clues to reveal the reasons for its construction, the activities that took place there, and its subsequent abandonment