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8 December 2003
Machu Pichu The Lost City of The Incas
We left the hotel by 6:30 am and walked the short distance to the bus stop.
The bus was almost full with tourists – it slowly moved up through the
winding roads up to the entrance of Machu Pichu ruins – it took about 30-40
minutes. Basically we moved vertically 700m up the steep slope of the
mountain – down below the town of Agua Caliente and Willcamayu River was
clearly visible. But above and beyond the entrance, nothing was visible –
whole ruin was still shrouded in fog and clouds – visibility was reduced to
few meters only.
We bought our entrance tickets and began to find our way through that shroud
of thick clouds – I had a guidebook, but it was of no use in this
visibility, as we could not see any major landmarks to fix our bearing. We
first walked in a northerly direction through weaving and walkways and
passages through the ruins moving away from the Terraces near the entrance.
Soon we came across a stairway going up, and began to climb it towards the
top- hoping to get our bearings from the top. Occasionally we were going
left or right of the stairs to inspect any interesting part of the ruins –
on one such a jaunt Rebecca and me got separated in the thick cloud.
It was useless to look for her in that thick mist – so I slowly walked up
the stairway and found my way to the a three walled structure called
‘watchman’s hut” located at the top of the main or lower agricultural
terraces to the south of the main ruins – it is considered the best vantage
point to have a birds eye view of the whole Machu Pichu ruins. But, what a
disappointment, I could only see some silhouette of nearby ruins only – I
will have to wait for the mist to lift.
Behind the hut there are few more upper agricultural terraces, few Lamas and
Alpacas were grazing there – I took few close up shots of them. I knew it
would be quite a while before the mist lift – so I decided to sit down on a
stone and read the guide book I was carrying – I have come to the most
mysterious and most famous Inca ruins very unprepared – it was an
opportunity to learn about it before I begin to explore it.
For centuries the lost city of Machu Pichu has been the most evocative and
durable myth about ancient Peru – The Spanish never knew about it, even most
Incas did not know about it, till it was accidentally discovered it in 1911
by an American expedition led by an historian named Hiram Bingham, while
they were searching for the lost Inca capital of Vilcabamba. When they found
it, it was hidden under high altitude cloud forests.
Machu Pichu is a purely an Inca city – it bears no sign of pre-Inca
occupation, nor there is any sign of post conquest occupation or destruction
common to all other Inca sites. The building style of Machu Pichu is “late
imperial Inca”.
Popular myth portrays Machu Pichu as some kind of Inca Shangri-la perched
alone on a remote mountain. But taken as a whole with many other ruins
discovered along the Inca trail, Machu Pichu is now viewed as the ceremonial
and administrative center of a large region.
One very popular myth was that Machu Pichu was the secret refuge of the
Virgins of the Suns – whose existence was known to only select few. This
story is based on the flawed assertion of one of Bingham’s associate that
75% of the human remains discovered there were female – later tests, using
modern technology found that this assertion was wrong – male female
proportion was roughly equal.
One enduring mystery is why the Spanish never knew about Machu Pichu – along
with its outlying sites, it remains most perfect surviving example of Inca
Architecture and planning, because it was never looted and destroyed by the
Spaniards. – Some speculate that it was because the surviving Incas did not
know about it either.
Hiram Bingham studied and excavated Machu Pichu - later classified the ruins
into sectors and named some of the important buildings – guides, guidebooks
and almost everybody else uses it, in a nutshell:
The whole complex is perched on the saddle at the top of the mountain ridge
– the slope rising roughly east to west and the complex clinging on it
roughly along the north-south direction. The site is divided into two
sectors: Main city and the terraced agricultural sector, separated by a dry
moat and a parallel stairway leading to the ‘Watch Man’s Hut’. Main city
lies on the northern side with the Wayna Pichu Mountain (further 300m rise)
and the Temple of the Moor on top of it, standing at the northern extreme.
The agricultural sector and the massive terraces occupy the southern half of
the site – at the southern extreme beyond the terraces, it narrows down
towards the famous Inca trail.
I was sitting right in the middle, at the ‘Watch Man’s Hut’ on the northern
top of the lower terraces – the city to the north and the agricultural
sector to the south – I was standing on the best vantage point to see it all
– but I could see almost nothing – Machu Pichu was still shrouded in thick
mist and cloud.
I have read enough of the guidebook, now I got to see it – I got up and
began to stroll up and around the upper terraces behind the ‘Watch Man’s
Hut’. It is amazing that the terraces were found standing firm and upright
on this steep ridge, 400 years after they were abandoned to the forests and
nature. Excavations have revealed that Inca engineers carefully prepared the
subsoil of the terraces and plazas for drainage, by filling the foundations
of these massive terraces with vas quantities of stone chips, before filling
in the agricultural top soil. The also built numerous subterranean
buttressing walls in critical places to prevent subsidence. All these
invisible engineering made the terraces so resilient.
About an hour later, I returned to the ‘Watch Man’s Hut’ – there, to my
surprise, I found back Rebecca, half lying on the edge of the rocky platform
along the northern wall of the hut facing the city below - with her camera,
waiting for the mist to lift. She blended so well with that misty
surrounding – I could not help, but to take a few photographs.
She turned around and saw me and asked – where did you disappear?
I asked back – where did yooo disappear? – We both broke into laughter.
I sat down behind her, leaning back on the Hut’s wall – waiting for the mist
to lift.
Eventually, our patience paid off – the mist gradually begin to thin out
around 11:00 am – like an ever thinning veil it was slowly revealing the
magical Machu Pichu – it was almost unreal – ruins standing on the curved
grass covered saddle of the ridge, with the soaring rocky mass of Wayna
Pichu peak on the northern extreme, standing like an exclamation mark! - I
have never seen anything like this, in reality or even in any visual media –
saddle of a mountain ridge landscaped to the perfection, along it’s its
numerous contours, rises, drops and the sloping plains.
I was facing north, looking downwards at the main city; down there to the
right there are a cluster of buildings along the dry moat that separates the
city from the agricultural terraces – roughly half way through the slope –
these are named Main Fountain, the Temple of the Sun, Palace of the Princess
and the Royal Sector.
Slightly above this cluster, straight in front of us is the quarry along the
western edge of the ridge, and across it along the edge, on the highest
point of the city, lies the most important shrine of Machu Pichu, the
Intiwatana or the “Hitching Post of the Sun”.
At the center of the city is a large and wide grassed strip running parallel
to the ridge from the dry moat towards the northern end of the city – it is
the Main Square or plaza of the city. Along the eastern edge of the main
plaza down the eastern slope of the ridge lies a sector of cruder built
buildings known as the common sector.
As the mists were lifting and unveiling magical Machu Pichu, gradually all
these were becoming visible – and kept us busy, furiously taking photographs
of the majestic unveiling of Machu Pichu – it could not be any better,
nature had it in store for us. There were few others around us – hardly
anybody spoke other than exclamations – all were dumbfounded by this
astounding unveiling of magical Machu Pichu.
We lingered there for about two more hours, till we got hungry and decided
to go down to have lunch near the entrance. We decided to explore the ruins
after lunch.
After lunch we began exploring from the Common Sector – there were many
buildings, but definitely of cruder construction – Rebecca, mentioned that
it was her childhood fantasy to play hide and seek in the ruins of Machu
Pichu, she picked up playing some video game – she wished she has come here
with a bunch of girls to relieve her fantasy.
We went through the Temple of the Condor, where there are caves and
underground passages, we moved up through the ruins of the Common Sector and
came out on the northern side of the central plaza. Some people were heading
north to climb the Wayna Pichu peak – me and Rebecca both thought that we
had enough of climbing for the day and did not have the energy to try Wayna
Pichu peak – so we skipped it.
We crossed the plaza and climbed the stairs to the top of Intiwatana –
Intiwatana or the “Hitching Post of the Sun,” – so called because the Incas
are said to have ritually tied the sun to such stones during the critical
solar solstice sunrises to prevent it from wandering down the horizon – in
reality it probably was used for making astronomical observations and
calculating the passing seasons.
Every major Inca center has such Intiwatana stone, but the Machu Pichu
Intiwatana is the only one, which escaped the attention of the Spaniards,
and survived in its original condition.
Rebecca was getting sunburns on her face, so we rested there for a while in
a shade before going down the southern stairway to a complex of three
temples: first a smaller temple and then to a bigger temple, called the
‘Principal Temple’ and then on to the ‘Temple of Three Windows’. The ‘Temple
of the Three Windows’ originally had five windows – two of them are blocked
off now – the trapezoid windows are partially cut into the eastern wall of
the temple, which is built on single huge rock.
We reached the stairs by the dry moat, and walked down towards the ‘Main
Fountain’ – so called, as it is the largest, with the finest stoneworks and
located at the Royal sector. The Main Fountain and the following 15 smaller
fountains are actually small waterfalls in a chain of sixteen ritual baths.
The fountains are fed by a long channel, which brings water across the
terraces from a spring. The channel is carefully engineered, sealed with
clay, and graded so that excess water would spill off where it would not
cause erosion, it still runs perfectly today.
As we walked through the ruins stopping to explore interesting constructions
- we also picked up our conversation from last night’s dinner- Rebecca was
doing most of the talking, talking about her life, her life since converting
to Islam – various aspects of Islam and contemporary events - their impacts
on ordinary life and their possible impacts on the future – I expressed my
views when I had a view – overall it was a most interesting walk through the
ruins of fabled Machu Pichu.
Rebecca was getting tired and her sunburns were hurting – I also thought
that I had a log and tiring day and we decided to return to our hotel Agua
Caliente.
After little rest and shower, we went out to first check our email and then
sit somewhere. We went to a restaurant around the Plaza at the base of this
longish and upwardly sloping town. Rebecca was hungry so she ordered some
Pizza – somehow, I did not feel hungry yet, so I settled down for Café con
Leche.
We sat there for two hours, Rebecca was in a talking mood – she was pouring
out her very interesting life storey - probably it is easy to pour your
hearts to strangers. Her story was full of drama and dilemma – she even
asked my opinion and suggestions on few of her critical dilemmas.
We were very much absorbed in our conversation – when the Chilean guy from
the train suddenly appeared from nowhere – he greeted us, then animatedly
told something to Rebecca and then hurriedly left. I asked Rebecca what had
happened to this guy? What was he telling? Rebecca said that one of his
friend has broken his leg in Machu Pichu and he was going to Hospital to see
his friend – which friend, what friend, he told nothing much to Rebecca – we
both were perplexed, Rebecca thought he was like a little boy.
Around 10:00 pm we left that place, Rebecca went back to Internet; I
strolled up the town, looking for some authentic Peruvian restaurant to have
my dinner. I found one and had some Peruvian style grilled chicken – that’s
the best I could find at that hour. As I was having my dinner, the Chilean
reappeared again – he was passing in front of the restaurant and saw me
inside – he came in, and greeted me with a broad smile and disappeared again
– I was wondering who is this mysterious character, he seemed quite harmless
and innocent.
Right after dinner, I returned to hotel and went to bed straightway –
tomorrow I will be catching the 5:00 am train back to Ollantaytambo; Rebecca
will also be travelling back to Cusco with me.
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