Three thousand feet above Urubamba Valley, Peru, stretch two mountains, Machu Picchu (Old Mountain) and Huayna Picchu (Young Mountain). On a cloud-draped ridge between the two peaks lies the site of Machu Picchu, part of the estate of the Inca king Pachacuti [AD 1438-1471]. The site is made up of single buildings arranged in groups, along streets, adjacent to plazas and terraces. Most of the buildings are residences, some of white granite masonry such as that seen in the city of Cuzco. Some of the buildings, which must have been for special purposes, are partly carved into the bedrock and partly built from finely cut white granite.
While Machu Picchu is mostly known for its architectural beauty and its near inaccessibility, it is the empire-building career of its builder which provides a great deal of the site's importance. The Inca empire had its foundations around 1200 AD. It remained small, one of several competing regional polities, until late in the reign of the eighth Inca king, Viracocha, about 1438 AD. At that time, the Inca capital at Cuzco was attacked by the Chancas, a powerful group who lived to the north. Viracocha fled, but his son, Inca Yupanqui, refused to cede and fought his way to victory.
Pachacuti's Cataclysm
After his victory, Inca Yupanqui took the name Pachacuti (which means "cataclysm"), and began the empire building for which the Inca are renowned. His campaign of conquest and diplomacy extended Inca control out over the Central and Southern Highlands of Peru. Over the next 55 years, Pachacuti and his son Topa Inca conquered major portions of the southern coast of Peru, the northern half of Chile, northwest Argentina, and eastern Bolivia.
It was Pachacuti who began the fabulous white granite constructions in Cuzco itself as well as at Machu Picchu that are known as Inca architecture. Inca architecture, as seen in Cuzco, Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu, is characterized by cut masonry without mortar. The faces of the stone are cut so finely that you can't insert a needle between them.
Machu Picchu 'Discovered'
The "discovery" of the site is usually ascribed to Hiram Bingham, adventurer/explorer/archaeologist/military man/state senator, who first visited the ruins in 1911; but it is pretty clear that the site was never really "lost." Bingham got a lot wrong in his book on Machu Picchu, but there is no doubt that his work in Peru brought the world's attention to the ancient culture of the Inca.
There are dozens of sites on the web for Machu Picchu, but nearly all of them consist of photo journeys from tourists. My favorite of these is Lou Albert's page called Machupijchu--he has an original flair for photography. A very nice tour of Ollantaytambo has been put together by Andrys Basten.
Sources
A Walking Tour of Machu Picchu has been assembled for this project.
Berger, K. and et al. 1988 Radiocarbon dating Machu Picchu, Peru. Antiquity 62:707-710.
Gordon, Robert and Robert Knopf 2007 Late horizon silver, copper, and tin from Machu Picchu, Peru. Journal of Archaeological Science 34:38-47.
This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Any mistakes are the responsibility of Kris Hirst.
