14 DAY TRIAL // A 2007 poll in which 100 million people participated included the Inca city of Machu Picchu amongst the world's new 7 wonders. Machu Picchu is shrouded in mystery, situated as it is on the top of the Andes at 4,000 m (13,300 ft) altitude. At the same time, it could have been an astronomic observatory and religious center.
Once, Machu Picchu was located 100 km (62 mi) north of the Inca capital of Cuzco. It was inhabited by about 1,000 people and situated at great distances from the main routes crossing the Inca empire.
Back in its glory days, the settlement must have been a superb natural fortress. Surrounded on three sides by rocks and mountains, the city was accessible only from the south, where its inhabitants built a massive wall for a better protection. The entrance into the city was made at the end of the wall.
The gates and the windows had a trapezoidal shape, narrowing towards the top. The steps from the upper and lower ridge, water canals, lakes and wells, were all carved directly into the rock. The stone rings from the top and sides suggest the fact that the wooden door was once protected by a wooden beam, tightly secured to the wall via ropes when the city had to be defended.
Lost in the mountains and well protected, Machu Picchu was not that isolated from the rest of the empire, mostly because of a web of couriers transmitting messages back and forth.
500 years ago
Inca people lived in small villages made of several families claiming to have the same ancestor. People lived in small houses, made of stone or bricks. Each village had a chief, the land was owned by all and cultivated using a system of crop rotation. Such villages in a territory with difficult means of communication had to join forces to cope with many life issues. Their unification was only made easier by this rigid structure.
The same thing can be seen in Machu Picchu. Located around a central square, the city spreads towards the exterior. The center is the place where temples, public buildings and the houses of the nobles (priests, priestesses and local rulers) were found. The houses of the lower rank people were situated on the outskirts.
The settlement reflected the power of the local ruler. In order to administer their territory, the Inca did not rely completely on these local leaders. They had developed a specific system that helped them maintain contact with their territories. The royal family and the elders kept on touch with their territories via official messengers called tucricucs.
They also made the censuses, using a less ordinary method for recording their results: the knotted ropes called quipus, with the help of which they marked the numbers in a decimal system similar to the one we use today. The statistics could indicate at any given time where men for the army or for work in public projects (like roads or agricultural terraces arrangement) were to be found. The public projects also included the building of stores in large cities. These deposits preserved large amounts of aliments. Unlike other monarchs, the Inca emperor had complete control over their resources, not via a regular trade but by collecting and storing the crops.
Machu Picchu was a typical Inca city. Located on a narrow rocky ridge, it required that the traditional Inca architecture be adapted to local condition and needs. Most of the stone houses had just one level and a sole entrance door. The access to the upper levels of the higher buildings was probably made using rope ladders. Most houses were topped with ichu grass. The roof was attached to the walls through a pile thrust on the front side. Some houses had stone roofs, the upper side of the stones being inclined, so that they joined one with the other in the central part of the edifice. Other houses were perfectly rectangular.
All these stone constructions confirm the fact they had been made by skilled artisans. Without using mortar, the local white granite had to be cut very carefully (and the Inca did not know the iron, thus iron tools were excluded). Moreover, the Incas did not know the wheel and had to carry as such these huge blocks. For the best quality surfaces, the stones were polished using sand and water. In this way, the buildings got a pleasant aspect and the lack of mortar use conferred to them an increased resistance to quakes.
Furniture was reduced to a minimum. Sometimes, a stone bench was made in one of the inner walls. Tools and other things were kept in wall niches or hung from nails on the walls. People slept on reed mats placed directly on the floor.
Most of the domestic chores, like sewing or cooking, took place outside, in the space between the houses. Inca fabrics were considered amongst the finest ever. Threads achieved from the wool of animals like llama or alpaca were almost as fine as cotton ones. The wool was dyed using plant colorants. Pottery too was well developed.
Hiram Bingham, who rediscovered Machu Picchu in 1912, found a huge amount of vessels in the tombs outside the city. Many had a remarkable quality, being recipients for liquids (water, beer, and so on); cooking pots, blackened by smoke, or elegant jars with geometrical decorations.
Water was precious for the inhabitants of this mountain city. There were springs whose water was used, but their supply was supplemented by an aqueduct and a series of basins cut in the rock. There were also water containers, called "bath tubes", but given the Peruvian mountain climate, it is unlikely they were used for such a purpose in the open.
Incas and the Sun God
In the middle of Machu Picchu, to the eastern main apple of the residential building, the great central square was found. It was placed next to a sacred square, on which open stone temples were located. One of these buildings was even named the House of the Priest. Nearby, the Intihuatana temple or "the place where the sun was fixed" was found. That temple may have been connected to the ceremonies celebrating sunrise at the moment of the summer solstice. The edifice included an altar with a stone pole, probably used for following its alignment with the sun during the solstice, but details about the ceremony are still not well known. Most Inca temples and altars are oriented on the ax east-west. The Sun God, Inti, was the most important Inca god, a symbol of life and fertility because of the light and heat it emanated.
Bingham had thought initially this was the great city of Vilcabamba. As a matter of fact, we do not know how the city was called by its inhabitants, as Machu Picchu is a modern name "borrowed" from one of its surrounding mountains. No one knows what happened with its inhabitants, as the documents of the Spanish conquistadors do not mention this settlement. It seems that the city reached its peak a little before the Spanish conquest, but was abandoned just before their arrival in Peru.
Its existence seems to have been of just 134 years, between 1438 (the beginnings of the Inca empire) and 1572 (the year of the arrival of the Spaniards).
What caused the city's decline? An epidemic is not excluded, as in an isolated, closed community, a disease would have spread rapidly. It could also be that the end was violent, but no proof of this has been found.