The City of Machu Picchu, rediscovered in 1911 by Yale archaeologist Hiram Bingham, are one of the most beautiful and enigmatic ancient sites in the world. While the Inca people certainly used the Andean mountain top (9060 feet elevation), erecting many hundreds of stone structures from the early 1400’s, legends and myths indicate that Machu Picchu (meaning ‘Old Peak’ in the Quechua language) was revered as a sacred place from a far earlier time. Whatever its origins, the Inca turned the site into a small (5 square miles) but extraordinary city. Invisible from below and completely self-contained, surrounded by agricultural terraces sufficient to feed the population, and watered by natural springs, Machu Picchu seems to have been utilized by the Inca as a secret ceremonial city. Two thousand feet above the rumbling Urubamba river, the cloud shrouded ruins have palaces, baths, temples, storage rooms and some 150 houses, all in a remarkable state of preservation. These structures, carved from the gray granite of the mountain top are wonders of both architectural and aesthetic genius. Many of the building blocks weigh 50 tons or more yet are so precisely sculpted and fitted together with such exactitude that the mortarless joints will not permit the insertion of even a thin knife blade. Little is known of the social or religious use of the site during Inca times. The skeletal remains of ten females to one male had led to the casual assumption that the site may have been a sanctuary for the training of priestesses and /or brides for the Inca nobility. However, subsequent osteological examination of the bones revealed an equal number of male bones, thereby indicating that Machu Picchu was not exclusively a temple or dwelling place of women.
One of Machu Picchu’s primary functions was that of astronomical observatory. The Intihuatana stone (meaning ‘Hitching Post of the Sun’) has been shown to be a precise indicator of the date of the two equinoxes and other significant celestial periods. The Intihuatana (also called the Saywa or Sukhanka stone) is designed to hitch the sun at the two equinoxes, not at the solstice (as is stated in some tourist literature and new-age books). At midday on March 21st and September 21st, the sun stands almost directly above the pillar, creating no shadow at all. At this precise moment the sun “sits with all his might upon the pillar” and is for a moment “tied” to the rock. At these periods, the Incas held ceremonies at the stone in which they “tied the sun” to halt its northward movement in the sky. There is also an Intihuatana alignment with the December solstice (the summer solstice of the southern hemisphere), when at sunset the sun sinks behind Pumasillo (the Puma’s claw), the most sacred mountain of the western Vilcabamba range, but the shrine itself is primarily equinoctial.
Shamanic legends say that when sensitive persons touch their foreheads to the stone, the Intihuatana opens one’s vision to the spirit world (the author had such an experience, which is described in detail in Chapter one of Places of Peace and Power, on the web site, www.sacredsites.com). Intihuatana stones were the supremely sacred objects of the Inca people and were systematically searched for and destroyed by the Spaniards. When the Intihuatana stone was broken at an Inca shrine, the Inca believed that the deities of the place died or departed. The Spaniards never found Machu Picchu, even though they suspected its existence, thus the Intihuatana stone and its resident spirits remain in their original position. The mountain top sanctuary fell into disuse and was abandoned some forty years after the Spanish took Cuzco in 1533. Supply lines linking the many Inca social centers were disrupted and the great empire came to an end. The photograph shows the ruins of Machu Picchu in the foreground with the sacred peak of Wayna Picchu towering behind. Partway down the northern side of Wayna Picchu is the so-called “Temple of the Moon” inside a cavern. As with the ruins of Machu Picchu, there is no archaeological or iconographical evidence to substantiate the ‘new-age’ assumption that this cave was a goddess site.
Peru is steeped in a rich archaeological heritage, with some of the most important sites lying in the coastal desert of the northern coast and in the southern Andean Highlands. In this guide a general overview of the most important sites in these areas is presented, enabling the reader to gain an insight into Peruvian archaeology and the cultures responsible for this legacy.
The few large valleys of the North Coast of Peru, which break up the monotony of the desert, feature some of the oldest monumental architecture of the Andes. Archaeologists consider it one of the few regions of the world where pristine states emerged.
By the third millennium BC the early inhabitants of this region developed a highly efficient economy based primarily on the rich marine resources of the Peruvian coast. Very complex societies emerged in this region long before the advent of large-scale irrigation agriculture or ceramics. Unfortunately, we still know very little about these mysterious cultures.
After intensive agriculture was firmly established by the second millennium, the cultures of this region showed increased integration. The Mochica culture (100 BC-600 AD) appeared as the result of a long development process and is probably not the first multi-valley polity. However, its achievements in terms of the size, quantity and the quality of their architecture and works of art mark a new level of sociocultural integration. Many scholars talk of the Moche as a very belligerent, even expansionist, state-level society, with strong, powerful rulers. The power of these rulers, like those buried at SIPAN, can be measured by the wealth witnessed at sites like EL BRUJO or the HUACA DEL SOL Y DE LA LUNA COMPLEX, where lavish ceremonies undoubtedly took place.
The Lambayeque or Sicán culture (1000/1100-1350 AD) continued the pyramid-building tradition of the Moche, as can he seen at the site of TUCUME, and expanded the already large irrigation system built by their forefathers. Ancient settlements like TUCUME, while still characterized by huge pyramids, also show a slightly more urban character. Large scale manufacturing of luxury goods, an old tradition on the North.
Coast, reached new heights during the Sicán era. The Sicán people were, among other things, masters of metallurgy.
The Chimú empire (1200-1470 AD), with its capital in CHAN CHAN appears to have used military force to expand, conquering TUCUME and all the North and Central coast of Peru. Their domain stretched from Pativillca, north of Lima, to Tumbes, near the modern border with Ecuador. The size and quality of the citadels of CHAN CHAN, the first non-pyramidal buildings to take on great importance, betray an enormous amount of labor invested to separate the rulers (who must have seemed something resembling living deities) from the masses of the working population.
Parallel to the Chimú expansion, a small ethnic group, whose main temple in Cusco was to be become the impressive KORICANCHA, began taking over the southern Andes. After the defeat of the invading Chanca army under the guidance of Inca Pachacutec, the Inca began a formidable series of conquests, first across the heavily segmented valleys of the southern Andes and the Titicaca Basin, then onto the coast. In many of the areas conquered they made more land available for agriculture by building terraces and canals of unparalleled effectiveness and beauty. Excellent examples can be seen at
OLLANTAYTAMBO and MACHU PICCHU.
The Inca subjugated the Chimú by 1470 AD, but even in that case, where they encountered bitter resistance, they preferred to leave the local leaders in power while establishing firm economic and ceremonial ties. A major strategy of consolidation, especially in areas of notoriously rebellious subjects, was the large-scale relocation of population.
The Incas operators operating in conquered territories tended to establish themselves on or near strategic points, such as in Huaca Larga in TUCUME. They assimilated the culture of their former foes, integrating their gods to the Inca pantheon and, in the case of the Chimú, transferring metal smiths from CHAN CHAN to Cusco.
By April 1532, when Pizarro’s troops sailed towards mainland Peru on a flotilla of balsa wood rafts, the Inca empire was reeling from a series of smallpox epidemics, one of which killed the Inca emperor, leading to a destructive war of succession between his sons.
The impeccable stone walls of the Inca capital of Cusco, more a huge ceremonial center than a city, are mute witnesses to the former splendor and the bitterness of the final defeat suffered at the walls of SACSAYHUAMAN.
If you are interested to visit the north of Peru including the most important archaeological sites and Museums visit out tour programs page where you will also find programs to Kuelap fortress and Chachapoyas area.
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