Nile Root » Area Introduction

Entrances

Nile — Wed, 26 Jun 2002 21:38:37 +0000

There are two entrances to Machu Picchu today. This photograph shows the tourist’s entrance. The steps in the lower part of this image lead down to a platform where the visitor can make a sharp left turn and enter the city.

The rounded mountain on the right is Mount Putucusi. Mount Yanantin is the high central peak in the back range.

Another entrance is high above this one, near the Guardhouse. It is the entrance the Inca used when they arrived from Cuzco by way of the Inca trail. Cuzco was their capital city, many miles and a week’s hike distant.

Our tour of Machu Picchu begins now from the famous Inca trail rather than the tourist trail.

Machu Picchu

Nile — Tue, 11 Jun 2002 21:32:04 +0000

Machu Picchu is a city of granite stairways and geometric shapes.

It displays wondrous scenic vistas along with its impressive human accomplishments. At one time the city shimmered with bright colors and brilliant gold reliefs in the Royal Residence and on the Temple walls.

Creative insight envisioned a fantastic city. The creative process fashioned terraces, stairways and stone buildings exhibiting an aesthetic blend of art, architecture and engineering.

Finally, astronomical alignments complete a celestial connection of the high mountain city to the southern sky.

Schematic Map of Machu Picchu

Nile — Tue, 11 Jun 2002 00:40:06 +0000

The names shown here are those most commonly used. The spelling of words such as Intiwatana varies from reference to reference depending on the Spanish influence. The Guardhouse is often referred to as the Watchman’s Hut.

In this photo-essay the spelling Inca is used, not Inka which is used by some publications.

You can return to this map during the tour by clicking on “Map” in the upper left or in the lower menu.

Llamas graze overlooking the Plaza and Eastern Urban Sector

Nile — Tue, 11 Jun 2002 00:25:16 +0000

In 1911 a young Yale explorer, Hiram Bingham, was led to Machu Picchu by local Indians. The city had not been discovered by the Spanish conquerers who destroyed other Inca cities and melted priceless gold art work for the metal alone.

The conquest in the 1530s was tragic for the Inca. Throughout the Inca Empire terror reigned as the Spanish soldiers slaughtered the populace while over-zealous Spanish missionaries demolished precious stone sculptures which they felt were non-Christian icons.

Machu Picchu escaped this devastation and today, in its magnificent setting, it is a treasure trove of art and architecture which dazzles our eyes. In addition are engineering achievements and astronomical alignments which give thoughtful scientists much to puzzle over.

Guardhouse with Machu Picchu mountain in the background

Nile — Tue, 11 Jun 2002 00:13:37 +0000

The beautiful city of Machu Picchu, cradled on a narrow high mountain ridge, did not spring full-blown without a plan. It is the legacy of thousands of years of Andean cultures which fostered sophisticated architects, engineers, astronomers and artists.

Nearly seven thousand years before Machu Picchu was founded, Andeans had domesticated the potato. Two thousand years before construction began on the city pre-Inca artists were creating elaborate golden pendants in other cities in Peru.The people were communicating and keeping records with quipus,a complicated system of colored strings which had varied sized and spaced knots.

When Machu Picchu was built, about 1450 AD, thousands of agricultural terraces already lined the mountain slopes of the Andean highlands in what was to become part of the huge Inca empire.

Machu Picchu

Nile — Tue, 11 Jun 2002 00:07:10 +0000

Abby and Nile explore the ancient city of the Children of the Sun,the mysterious hidden Inca enclave nestled high in the Peruvian mountains.

The images for this photo-essay were made by Nile in June, 2002. This installation is a joint effort of Nile and Abby. A bibliography is on the last page.